


Maybe, Maybe

by pleasanthell



Category: Rookie Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-13 21:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2166525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasanthell/pseuds/pleasanthell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two strangers bond over the parenting of a plastic computer baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Economics was useless. At least that’s what Gail thought. She sat in the back of the class and counted down the minutes until she could go home. In a class of second semester Grade 11 and 12 level students, it was difficult for anyone to take the class seriously.  

“Alright,” the teacher pushed a cart into the room. The car was full of babies all plugged into a laptop. “Starting off our Economics of Family, we will learn what it’s like to take care of a baby.”

“Yes,” came a quiet cheer from the front of the classroom where the class chatterbox, Chloe, pumped her fist.

Gail groaned loudly.

The teacher stood in front of the classroom. “I have randomly put everyone into parenting partners. Some are girl-boy, some are girl-girl, and some are boy-boy. The nuclear family is changing, get used to it people. Remember this assignment revolves around co-parenting. Both parents must spend an equal amount of time with the baby.” The teacher scratched his balding head and picked up a clipboard. “When I call your name, come up here and get your newborn.” He ran his finger down the sheet and announced the first couple. “Nick Collins and Chloe Price.”

Chloe looked behind her and smiled at her best friend and resident hockey captain, Nick. They got up together and went to get the baby.

Gail kicked the back of her friend Chris’s seat. He turned around and she said, “If we’re paired together, you’re doing all the work.”

“Don’t I always?” He smiled at her.

She pulled out her phone and opened up her texts. “Let’s go get a burger after this. I’m starving.”

“We have class after this,” Chris saw Dov turn in his seat and join into their little circle, “And we just got back from lunch.”

Gail huffed, “Stupid Steve told me parents that the physical fitness requirement to get into the police college are getting harder so they’re making me go to the gym four nights a week. I’m wasting away.”

“I saw you at the gym on Thursday,” Traci entered the conversation. “You were sitting on the exercise bike, watching TV. You weren’t even pedaling. You were drinking a milkshake.”

The teacher called, “Chris Diaz and Dov Epstein.”

Chris looked over at Dov and shared a smile. Dov nodded, “We got this.”

“We’re naming him Bobby Orr,” Chris fist bumped Dov as they got up and went to the front of the classroom to get their baby.

“Where’s Andy?” Gail asked, looking around.

“She’s sick,” Traci stated, although Andy was never physically ill. Everyone knew after her dad showed up drunk to one of her soccer games, that when Andy was sick at school it was because she was at home taking care of her dad.

Gail didn’t ask any more questions out of respect for Andy. She just went back to playing a game on her phone.

The teacher called, “Traci Nash and Jerry Barber.”

Traci smiled upon hearing that she was sharing the responsibilities with her boyfriend. Jerry waited for Traci to walk up with him and they continued to the teacher together.

Gail was playing a game, but she was covertly looking around at who was left in the class to be paired with. There were mostly girls left. There was Marlo Cruz who was really serious and scared Gail a little bit. Sue Tran was in the middle of the room, texting. She wouldn’t be so bad. Gail hung out with her a few times because Andy and Sue played on the soccer team together.

Gail looked around. There was Sam Swarek. His bad boy façade grated on Gail’s nerves. Luke Callaghan also grated on Gail’s nerves. He was friends with her brother, but one year younger so when Steve went to the Police College, Luke went into his last year of high school.

Then there was –

“Holly Stewart,” the teacher called, “and Gail Peck.”

Gail looked around, momentarily forgetting that there was someone named Holly in their class. When Gail saw a girl in the back of the room with long brown hair and glasses stand up, she remembered. Holly was quiet and kept to herself. She and Gail had been in a few classes together, but from what Gail gathered by just looking at Holly and the things she carried, Holly was really smart and probably going to be valedictorian.

Holly smiled at Gail when they got to the front of the room, “I know we’ve never formally met. I’m Holly.”

Gail nodded and shoved her hands in her pockets, “Gail Peck.”

“Here is your baby ladies,” the teacher told them. He handed it to Holly who looked it over. Then she offered it to Gail who held it awkwardly for a moment before handing it back.

The teacher handed them both pieces of paper, “These are your co-parenting forms. You will be holding each other accountable so you’ll give each other grades based on multiple things. Read the instructions.”

Gail looked over at Holly who looked a little nervous.

The teacher held up a baby bottle. “This will simulate feeding. You don’t have to mix anything. Just don’t lose it.”

Gail took the bottle. She watched the teacher, hand Holly a carrier. “Responsibilities are shared equally,” he looked at Gail when he said that.

Gail just rolled her eyes and huffed, “Fine.”

“Get out of here,” the teacher told them and picked up the clipboard. “Sam Swarek and Luke Callaghan.”

Gail followed Holly out of the way and went with Holly back to her desk. Gail sat on the desk in front of Holly’s. “How do you want to do this?”

Holly licked her lips, “I…can’t really take the baby home. I want to help. I want to make a good grade on this, but my house isn’t exactly quiet and if they baby cries in the middle of the night there I’ll…it won’t be good.”

Gail saw the nervousness in Holly’s face. Gail shrugged, “You can just stay at my house if you want. There’s a guest room across the hall from mine. We can share the experience or whatever.” Plus, Gail thought it would be a good excuse to not have to go to the gym.

“Are you sure?” Holly asked, pushing her glasses up, “You don’t know me that well.”

Gail shrugged, “It’s not a big deal. My parents are barely home during the day and their bedroom is on the opposite side of the house. Unless you want me to come stay at your house.”

“No,” Holly was quick to dismiss that idea. “Your house will be fine.”

Gail could sense that Holly didn’t want Gail to come over and being the daughter of cops she knew there were a variety of reasons why, all of them bad. She bit the inside of her cheek and offered, “How about you go home and get your stuff and I’ll take the baby with me to my house? You can come over and we’ll order a pizza or something.”

Holly smiled brightly and it did something to Gail’s stomach. She couldn’t help, but smile back. Holly nodded, “That sounds great.”

Gail looked at the paper in her hands, “What are we going to name it?”

“Well I guess that would depend on if you think it’s a boy or a girl,” Holly looked at the baby.

Gail shrugged. She picked up the baby and looked it over. She narrowed her eyes, “It’s a girl.”

Holly smiled amusedly, “How can you tell?”

“She looks smart,” Gail put the baby down. “We could name her Charlotte or Sophie or Gail jr.”

After a soft laugh Holly answered, “Sophie is fine.”

“Don’t sound too enthusiastic or anything. It’s just your offspring,” Gail felt her phone vibrate. She pulled it out of her pocket. It was her mom reminding her that the gym was open after school. Gail texted her mom back that she couldn’t go to the gym because she got a fake baby project and she was having a friend come over to spend a few days.

“You’re in 11th right?” Holly asked when Gail put her phone away.

Gail nodded. “Unfortunately. I can’t wait to get out of here.”

Holly agreed, “I have a few months and it’s too long.” She looked at the clock and saw that their class was almost over. “Do you have class after this?”

“Yeah,” Gail looked at her paper. She picked up Holly’s pen and wrote down Sophie’s name.

“I’m done after this so I’ll take her home with me to get my stuff and meet you back at your house,” Holly looked down at the baby, “There’s no reason for you to risk a baby crying during class.”

“Thank you so much,” Gail looked at the clock and knew that she had to grab her stuff, “That class is awful and having to worry about a baby may drive me nuts.”

When the bell rang, Gail put her phone number into Holly’s phone and then texted Holly her address. “I’ll be there in about an hour.”

They parted ways. Gail managed to get out of her last class was only an hour of homework. That was a nice break from the three the teacher usually expected her to do. Not that she ever did all of it, but he expected it.

She rolled into her driveway and found Holly sitting on her front porch with the baby in her arms. She was feeding it so Gail was sure that the baby had already cried. She felt bad because they were supposed to share the responsibilities.

“Hey,” Gail grabbed a drink carrier with three cups in it, “I got milkshakes, but I wasn’t sure what you like so I got all of them.”

Holly smiled and stood up when Gail neared, “Thank you.”

“How’s Sophie?” Gail asked, pulling out her keys and unlocking the front door with one hand. She pushed the door open and gestured for Holly to go in first.

Holly picked up her bag and put it over her shoulder. Then she grabbed the carrier to walk into the house, “I’m not really a good judge of babies, but she only cried once and the bottle made her stop so I guess that’s good.”

Gail kicked off her shoes inside the front door and Holly did the same because there was a mass of shoes that the front door she figured it was customary.

Gail took the carrier from Holly and led the way up the stairs just off the front door. “Do you need me to carry the baby?”

“No I got her,” Holly followed Gail up.

When they got all the way up the stairs, Gail showed Holly where the guest room was so she could drop off her bag and then carried the carrier into her bedroom.

Holly followed her with the baby. Gail set the milkshakes on her nightstand.

“Your room is beautiful,” Holly commented. She saw the rich dark oak bed. The rest of the furniture matched from the nightstand to the dresser and the TV stand. Gail had a rather large TV and the latest gaming station available. Holly was impressed with the room and slightly surprised by the books on the bottom shelf of the TV stand. She had heard of Gail and her reputation not really wanting to do anything that required a lot of effort. She kind of pictured a messy room with a TV centerpiece.

“Thanks,” Gail shrugged. It wasn’t really a big deal. She liked a neat room and her mom made her make her bed before she got her car keys for the day.

Holly sat on the foot of the bed and put the baby down, “I guess quiet means that she’s asleep?”

Gail nodded, “Probably.” She picked up two of the milkshakes, “Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. I will happily drink whichever one you don’t like.”

“I like chocolate,” Holly’s eyes looked all the way around the room. It was absolutely beautiful and completely different from her bedroom.

Gail handed the milkshake over and then shoved a straw in the strawberry one. She laid down across the head of the bed and propped up her head, “What do you usually do after school?”

“Homework,” Holly answered before taking a sip of her milkshake.

Gail groaned, “I have so much homework to do.”

“Who do you have for English?” Holly asked, crossing her legs on the bed and absently touching the baby’s stomach.

“Boyko,” Gail rolled her eyes, “It’s so boring I want to stab myself in the eye with a pen.”

Holly chuckled, “Agreed. I had him last year.”

“So what’s your plan after graduation?” Gail took in the girl in front of her. Holly hair fell perfectly around her face in long silky strands and it all looked completely natural. Gail had started dying her hair two years ago and it was such a pain to get under control.

“I’ve been accepted to Toronto, UBC, and McGill,” Holly pushed her glassed up her nose, “I haven’t decided where I’m going yet.”

Gail was impressed. “That’s awesome. Are you looking to get out of town or are you eternally stuck here?”

Holly smiled wistfully, “I don’t have anything keeping me here, but I don’t really have a reason to leave either.”

“That actually sounds really nice,” Gail rested her cheek on her fist, “You’re free to do anything you want.”

“Yeah,” Holly looked down at the bed and nodded, “Free.” She smiled fully to herself and then asked, “What about you?”

“Oh I don’t really have a choice,” Gail shrugged. She sat up and stretched, “I’m going to the police college just like my parents and just like my brother.”

“You don’t want to?” Holly ran a hand through her hair and tilted her head.

Gail felt a little uncomfortable with someone so interested in her future with absolutely no investment in it. She wasn’t used to people genuinely interested in her with no ulterior motive. She swallowed, “Um, I think I probably would do it even if my family didn’t. I just…I would be more sure if it wasn’t what I’m _supposed_ to do.”

Holly ran her teeth over her lower lip and nodded, “That totally makes sense.”

Gail decided that that was enough sharing for the time being. She looked around, “Shit. I left my bag in my car. I’m going to go get it so I can get my homework done before the baby starts crying again.”

Holly just silently agreed. She watched Gail walk out of the room and figured that she should get started on her own. She got scholarships to all the universities she was accepted to, but a few of them were contingent on a last semester on par with the rest of her stellar high school career.

Holly retrieved her bag from the guest room and returned. She left the baby on the bed and just laid on her stomach next to it at the foot of the bed. She got out her math book and graph paper, ready to knock out her homework.

Gail returned shortly after. She turned on some music without really thinking about it and flopped down on the bed. The jostling started the baby to crying. “Sorry,” Gail muttered. She picked up the bottle before Holly could get to it and stuck it in the baby’s mouth. “Sorry,” Gail repeated to Holly because she caused the baby to interrupt her work.

“You’re good at this,” Holly commented.

“Well it’s a robot baby,” Gail grabbed her book with one hand and opened it, “She are the same set of emotions.”

Holly smiled at the self-deprecating comment. She already knew that wasn’t true and she’d only really known Gail for a few hours.

They both went back to their homework. Gail was sure that the baby was done fake eating after she got through the first few chapters of her reading assignment. She took the bottle out of the baby’s mouth and a second later it started wailing.

Gail tried to put the bottle back into its mouth, but that didn’t stop the crying. Gail tossed the bottle aside and scooped up the baby. She leaned back on her headboard. Holly grabbed the paper that said what the baby was supposed to do. She moved to Gail’s side and put her hand on the baby’s stomach gently patting it. The crying grew lower before it stopped.

Gail gently bounced the baby. She looked to Holly and found that the other girl was pressed against her side, worrying over the baby. Gail had had friends this close to her. Chris pretty much used her as a pillow every time he came over to play video games, not she never really felt her heart change pace before. She couldn’t tell if it was speeding up or slowing down, but it was different.

When Holly noticed Gail looking at her, she pulled away and created some space between their bodies. Holly held the paper with both of her hands and explained, “It says that she’s going to if she needs to be fed, burped, changed diaper or clothes, and if she needs to be held.”

“Stupid robot baby,” Gail sighed.

Holly smiled, “It’ll go by faster than you think.”

“I’m scared to put her down,” Gail held the baby against her chest.

Holly got up off of the bed and went to the guest room. She returned with two pillows. “Judging by pressure points and places in the doll’s body where sensors could be, I think if you put her down on these pillows, it should think that you’re holding her.”

Gail put the baby down the way Holly indicated and it didn’t start crying. Gail let out the breath she was holding. Holly and Gail shared a relieved smile over the baby.

“Okay,” Holly picked up her math book, “We should be okay for a few hours.”

They both went back to work on opposite sides of the bed. It wasn’t an hour later that the front door opened. Gail didn’t look up, but Holly did. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs and down the hallway. A small woman in a white uniform stood in the doorway.

“Hello,” the woman smiled at Holly who was the only one to acknowledge her.

“Hi,” Holly answered, “I’m Holly.”

“You can call me Elaine,” the woman smiled politely. “I hear you’re helping Gail raise my little plastic grandbaby.”

“Oh god,” Gail groaned.

Holly smiled, “Yes. At least for a few days.”

“Well you can stay here as long as you need to,” Elaine explained, “I see Gail’s already given you the guest room. This is an excellent learning experience.” Elaine looked pointedly at Gail.

Gail avoided her mom’s eyes and looked harder at her book.

“Would you both like to join us for dinner at Café Bacio?” Elaine asked.

“We’re ordering pizza,” Gail told her mom. “We can’t really leave the baby and you don’t want that screaming howler monkey in public.”

“That’s no way to talk about your child,” Elaine teased Gail.

Gail sunk down on the bed and groaned loudly, “Mom!”

Elaine smiled to Holly, “You two have fun. We’ll be home later.”

“Sorry,” Gail looked over at Holly, “my mom is awful.”

Holly smiled over her shoulder to Gail, “I think she’s great.” Holly moved back to her books and Gail saw something in Holly that she’d seen before when she was hanging around the police station. It was a sad smile and a deflated posture. Gail couldn’t quite put a finger on exactly why Holly was the way she was, but she was going to find out.

Gail licked her lips, “Why don’t we order the pizza so it’ll get here before we’re hungry? Well I’m always hungry.” She picked up the leftover vanilla milkshake. It was still cold so she put a straw in it and took a long sip. “What kind do you want?”

“Whatever you usually get,” Holly shrugged, “I’m not picky.”

Gail was getting more curious about Holly so as she picked up her laptop to order the pizza, she asked, “Who do you hang out with?”

Holly paused checking her homework, “Um, mostly Rodney. We’ve studied together since ninth grade. I used to hang out with Sue Tran because we were dating, but we…broke up.”

“Hmm,” Gail hummed and typed in the website to her computer for the pizza, “I wondered why she started hanging out with McNally and the rest of use more often.” Gail looked over the top of her computer, “Why did you break up?”

“I don’t know,” Holly closed her book, “We just stopped having fun together.”

Gail nodded, “Been there. I dated Chris Diaz. Turns out we’re better friends.” Gail looked over the top of her computer at Holly, “Cheese? Pepperoni? Sausage? Vegetable?”

“Really, anything you want is great,” Holly assured Gail.

Gail clicked around and put in her credit card number, “Alright. It’s on the way.” She closed her laptop and leaned back on her headboard. She looked at her homework. “I think I’m done with my homework.”

“You finished?” Holly asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Gail smirked.

What Holly usually found annoying in people, she found adorable in Gail. She just tried not to smile and shook her head, “I can already tell that you’re going to be a bad influence on Sophie.”


	2. Chapter 2

“I will be the best influence,” Gail looked at their baby.

Holly slid off the bed onto her feet and stood at the foot of the bed. She picked up her math book and nodded, “Yeah, I think so too.” She walked out of the room with a smile and disappeared into the guest bedroom.

Holly returned without her math book and stood at the foot of the bed, “So, what do you normally do on Thursday nights?”

Gail grabbed her laptop again and opened it. “Well, I usually just hang out with my friends or my mom forces me to go to the gym so I’ll be ready to start the police college next year.” Gail logged onto her social media account and rolled her eyes. Chris and Dov had been posting picture of them with their baby at the park, the grocery store, a diner, and in the garden at Dov’s parent’s house. Gail called Holly over and told her that she needed to see them.

Holly sat next to Gail, careful not to crowd her. She didn’t actually let their bodies touch again. She smiled though, “That’s cute that they’re having fun.”

“They would have had fun with a rock baby,” Gail continued scrolling. It was mostly people complaining about how their babies cried all the time and passive aggressive and slightly vague comments about how _someone_ wasn’t helping with their baby.

Holly moved away from Gail and pulled out her phone. Gail used her sock covered foot and push Holly’s arm, “What do you do for fun on Thursday nights?”

Holly kept her eyes on her phone when she answered, “Same as you. Friend and homework.”

“Do you like movies?” Gail asked. “We have a whole lot of them in the media room.”

They moved down to the media room that had eight huge recliners with a projector that showed the movie on the massive white screen. Holly asked for a comedy as she set the baby in the carrier down between the seats. She looked around, never having been in a house with its own media room before.

Just as Gail was setting up the movie, the doorbell rang. She ran and got it, along with two bottles of water from the kitchen, and returned with dinner.

They ate pizza and watched the movie during a nice break from the baby who apparently slept the whole time. By the time the movie was over, Elaine and Bill were home. Bill introduced himself to Holly and she politely did the same. Gail’s parents went to bed and suggested that the girls do the same while they still could.

Holly looked over at Gail and little nervous. She hadn’t really thought about nighttime. Gail kept a better front. She told her parents that they’d be fine and gave a supportive nod to Holly.

Upstairs, they decided that the baby would be in Gail’s room, but they would leave both of their bedroom doors open so Holly would hear the baby as well.

Gail settled into bed and contently fell asleep with the baby next to her. However, she only got a good thirty minutes in before the baby started screaming.

It didn’t take Holly more than a minute to wake up and cross the hall. Gail picked up the baby and tried to feed it. It apparently wasn’t hungry because it kept screaming.

“Maybe we should change it,” Holly suggested. So they changed its clothes, changed its diaper, tried burping it, and nothing was working. Finally, Holly had the baby in her arms and gently bounced it while she walked from Gail’s bed, across the hallway, to her bed, and back. It stopped crying after the first lap, but Holly did a few more just to make sure that the baby was asleep.

When Holly set the baby down on Gail’s bed, Gail’s face was squished against her pillow and her eyes were half-closed. “You should just sleep in here. It’s gonna be like this all night.”

Gail was right. The baby woke up every two hours and every time Gail and Holly worked together to make sure that the baby shut up as quickly as possible.

They were barely awake at breakfast the next morning. Gail made them a pot of coffee and then split it between two of the biggest travel mugs she could find. They sleepily ate fruit in Gail’s car on the way to school.

“Okay,” Holly sat in the passenger’s seat in the parking lot of their school. She looked tiredly at the school and for the first time in her life thought about ditching for the day. “I’ll take her first and second period. You can take her third then we’ll meet for lunch and after economics I’ll take her with me to the black box because there’s never anyone there.”

“Black box?” Gail asked.

“It’s a practice space for the theatre classes,” Holly rolled her neck. “The whole inside is painted black, but there’s a couch that they use for their sets in there so I can get Sophie out of her carrier.”

Gail nodded in agreement. She looked at the school and took a deep breath.

They walked into the school together with their baby and their coffee. They could already see the other couples with their babies and the affect the whole thing was having on everyone. Luke and Sam were at the end of the hallway yelling at each other over the screaming baby. It looked like any second it was going to come to blows.

Dov and Chris actually walked into the building quietly bickering so they wouldn’t wake up their baby. Jerry was sitting on a chair in the hallway holding the baby. It looked like he fell asleep sitting there. The baby even took some of the bounce out of Chloe’s step. It looked like she was sleep walking while holding the baby, leaning against Nick who was kind of guiding her to class.

Gail heard the door open behind them and saw Andy and Sue walk in. They both looked tired. Andy nodded to Gail, “How was it?”

Gail shrugged, “An awful shrieking little torture device that woke up every two hours.”

Sue offered a smile to Holly who smiled back. “What’s your baby’s name?” Sue asked.

“Sophie,” Holly answered, looking at the baby in her carrier.

Sue gestured to the baby she was holding with one arm, “This is Termie. Short for the Terminator.”

“We changed his name last night after Sue had to rewire the head back on,” Andy huffed.

Gail got a wicked smile, “What did you do?”

Andy looked around the hallway, “Promise not to tell?”

Gail nodded, wanting Andy to get back to the story.

“We were in Sue’s backyard kicking the ball back and forth because the baby was sleeping. We put the baby on the patio table and Sue accidentally kicked the ball toward the baby,” Andy looked between Gail and Holly then went on, “I tried to stop the ball, but I fell into the table instead. The baby wasn’t strapped into the carrier so when I fell on the table, it went flying across the yard.”

“We’re just lucky it didn’t land in the pool,” Sue rubbed her eyes. “I spent two hours in my dad’s shed rewiring all the neck joints.”

Holly burst into a fit of giggles and Gail could barely talk between laughs, “You two are the worst parents ever.”

“Like you did any better,” Andy quipped.

“Actually Gail’s great,” Holly was quick to defend her. “Sophie slept between us and Gail got her to stop crying most of the night.”

“Booyah,” Gail stuck her tongue out at Andy as the bell rang for first period.

“You two slept in the same bed?” Sue asked, a little dumbstruck.

Holly didn’t answer immediately so Gail nodded, “Yeah. Cause we’re good moms.” She pulled Holly away from them by the bag over her shoulder, “Later, losers.” As they walked away, Gail dropped her hand to her side and asked, “Where’s your first class?”

“On the other side of campus,” Holly answered.

Gail nodded and kept walking with Holly.

“You don’t have to walk me to class,” Holly said once they were halfway to her class, “I’m sure it’s far away from your class.”

“It is,” Gail shrugged, “But how would it look if I didn’t walk my baby mama to class?”

“Oh my god,” Holly rolled her eyes, “Did you seriously just call me that?”

Gail just grinned and kept walking. She changed Holly’s name in her phone to ‘Baby Mama’ and showed Holly when they got to her class. Holly narrowed her eyes at Gail, but couldn’t help a smile.

Gail smiled, proud of herself and patted Sophie’s head. “Have fun.”

No actual learning was had by anyone with a baby that day. When they baby started crying, the students were asked to take it outside. Gail spent most of her English class sitting in the hallway trying to get Sophie to calm down. She was close to calling Holly out of class when the baby finally went to sleep.

They spent lunch going to a drive through and then taking a nap in Gail’s car with the windows down.

After her last class, Gail felt like she was close to passing out when she wandered toward where the theatre was. She opened a few doors and found a broom closet, a set of spiral stairs that disappeared up into darkness, and a workshop before she found the black box. Holly was sleep on the couch with the baby on her chest.

Holly’s glasses were crooked on her face and her hair was falling haphazardly over her shoulders, obscuring part of her face. Gail had a hint of a smile on her face when she took Holly’s glasses off and folded them up. She put the glasses in her bag and then sat on the ground next to the couch. She took out her homework and let Holly sleep while she got her work out of the way.

Holly woke up when the baby started crying again. She slowly blinked and found that her glasses were gone. She sat up and looked around. She blindly reached for the baby’s bottle in her bag and shoved it in the baby’s mouth as she sat up. Sophie stopped crying immediately.

“Here,” Gail softly said, handing Holly her glasses.

Holly took them with one hand and put them on. “What time is it?”

Gail looked at her phone, “Uh, almost five.”

Holly was surprised, “Why are we still here?”

“You were up most of the night,” Gail shrugged it off. She looked at her open book on the ground, “I was doing my homework. We can leave now if you want to.”

Holly sat up more and nodded. She used her chin to hold the baby’s bottle in place while she grabbed her bag. Gail shoved her book into her bag and picked up the carrier.

“You didn’t have to let me sleep,” Holly offered, although she was thinking a lot more clearly than she was earlier when she almost went to the boys restroom or when she accidentally turned in her calculus homework in her physics class.

Gail didn’t really think it was a big deal so she smirked, “Anything for my baby mama.”

Holly groaned and tried to make an annoyed face, but the way Gail was smiling at her…it was just impossible to do anything, but smile back.

Holly drove them back to Gail’s house so Gail could take a catnap in the car. They didn’t go immediately upstairs, opting to hang out in the living room for a little while. Gail fell asleep at her end of the couch, burping the baby.

When Gail woke up, she could hear talking. The baby wasn’t crying. She just seemed to wake up on her own.

“Do you have a leaning?” Gail heard her mom ask.

“Um,” Holly paused, “Well, my ultimate goal is to go to medical school so I have to research some more, but whichever one I think will prepare me the best for medical school.”

“That is very impressive,” Bill stated.

Gail got up off of the couch with the baby and walked into the kitchen where she found her parents and Holly all making dinner together in the kitchen.

“Your parents must be proud of you,” Elaine commented. Gail knew that tone of voice that her mother was using. She was fishing for information. Elaine must have noticed the same reluctance to discuss her home life that Gail did.

Fortunately for Holly she found a way out. She spotted Gail and asked, “Did she wake you up?”

Gail shook her head, “It was that smell. Are we having stir fry?”

“Yes,” Bill added some vegetables to the wok. “I would ask you to set the table, but you have your hands full.”

“I can do it,” Holly offered as she moved to the sink to wash her hands.

Gail watched Holly interacting with her family. Holly actually seemed to be having a good time with her parents which usually would have made Gail dislike Holly, but she actually kind of liked it. Gail frowned. She was going to have to blame her newfound fondness for Holly on her nap. She never took to people this quickly. It took almost three months of being lab partners for Gail to even tell Dov her name.

Holly retrieved the carrier after setting the table. Gail put Sophie in the carrier and set it on a chair between her and Holly. Dinner was pleasant. No one bugged Gail about her future because they bugged Holly. Gail interrupted a few times when her parents got too nosy because she could see Holly squirm uncomfortably.

After dinner, Gail asked Holly if she wanted to hang out in the backyard. Holly agreed and they moved out into the evening.

It was chilly outside, but not uncomfortably so. Gail ran up to her room to get a baby a blanket. When she was trying to calm the baby down during class earlier, she looked up the make of the baby and saw that it was temperature sensitive. She wouldn’t admit it, but she wanted to help Holly keep her GPA high.

Gail covered the baby and went to the shed to get some wood to start a fire in the fire pit that Holly was sitting in front of. After the fire was started, she sat down in the lounger next to Holly.

They both just looked into the fire for a while in silence. Gail looked over at Holly. “Are you warm enough?”

Holly nodded with a content smile, “Yeah. Definitely. This is nice.”

Gail nodded in agreement. She leaned back on her chair. She was still tired, but she didn’t want to go back to sleep until she was in her bed.

“Can I ask you something?” Gail finally asked.

Holly looked over at Gail, curious to what she wanted to know, “Of course.”

Gail looked down at the fire and ran her thumbnail over the arm of her chair, “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to…” She slowly looked over at Holly, “Why don’t you talk about your parents?”

Holly inhaled through her nose. She licked her lips, “I don’t really have parents. I have foster parents…sort of.” Holly shook her head and looked back at the fire, “I don’t like to talk about it because people feel sorry for me.”

Gail took a moment to think of something to say other than her kneejerk reaction which was ‘sorry’. Gail shook her hair away from her face and started putting it up in the ponytail, “You don’t like your foster parents?”

“They’re not really…” Holly pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, “I don’t think they’re foster parents for the right reasons. I have minimal supervision which I don’t care about. There are so many kids though it might as well be a group home. They have no idea what I do during the day and they keep reminding me that I need to find a job because when I turn 17 they’re not responsible for me anymore.”

“You’re not 17 yet?” Gail asked a little surprised for how mature Holly was.

Holly shook her head, “I took classes during the summer in eighth grade so that I could skip freshman year.”

Gail looked over at Holly. She was in awe of Holly’s brain, her ambition, and her poise. Not many people had Gail’s respect, but Holly had it in spades.

“Don’t say anything okay?” Holly asked quietly, “You’re the only one that knows besides Rodney.”

Gail blinked and shot a confused look at Holly, “Sue doesn’t know?”

Holly shook her head, “She didn’t ask questions and I didn’t say anything.”

“Your foster parents don’t know that you’re going to university?” Gail asked, “Like the best universities on the continent?”

Holly smiled at Gail’s hidden compliment. “No. I had all my admission stuff sent to Rodney’s house. I don’t want them to think they had anything to do with it.”

Gail nodded firmly, “I wouldn’t either.” She paused, “When do you turn seventeen?”

“Two months,” Holly looked at the fire.

“Are they going to kick you out?” Gail asked, “That’s like a month before graduation.”

“Yeah,” Holly rested her chin on her knees, “I’ll probably stay with Rodney if his parents let me.”

Gail looked behind her at the house and then back at the fire, “You can stay here.”

“What?” Holly asked more in disbelief than not hearing Gail.

The blonde shrugged. “You can stay here. There’s more than enough room. You’re my parents’ favorite person that I’ve ever brought home. Nick is the captain of the hockey team and makes good grades, not as good as you, but they hate him.”

Holly smiled, “Thank you. I’ll think about it.”

When the fire died out, they went inside to bed. Gail got Holly to just start off sleeping in her bed with her and the baby so she wouldn’t have to walk across the hall the first time she cried. The baby actually let them sleep for a whole hour before starting her wailing.

It was almost three in the morning when Holly finally got the baby asleep from her fourth screaming fit. She was exhausted and slightly delirious. She laid down on the bed, looking at the ceiling with the baby on her chest. Gail just flopped back on the bed and her head came to rest on Holly’s shoulder. Holly looked down at Gail and smiled. Without even thinking about it, she kissed the top of Gail’s head.

Gail felt it though Holly thought she was asleep. Gail was in a euphoric state from lack of sleep. She slowly tilted her head up and pushed against the bed so that her lips came to rest on Holly’s. Holly was more than a little shocked, but eased into the sleepy kiss. Gail was awake enough kiss Holly properly and Holly felt her lips slide easily against Gail’s.

Gail was the one that broke the kiss. She put her head back on Holly’s shoulder and put her arm around Holly’s stomach right at the baby’s feet.

Holly decided to try not to overthink it. She was exhausted and Holly was 90% sure she was just hallucinating. She just closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall hard into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

When Holly woke up the next morning, Gail was gone. She heard the shower going and figured that’s where she went. Holly looked next to her for the baby, but found that it wasn’t there. She looked in the carrier and saw that Sophie wasn’t there either. Holly rolled off of the bed and looked all the way around the bed.

She heard a baby crying coming from the hallway so she ran out of the bedroom. The crying was coming from downstairs so Holly ran down the stairs, following the noise. She found the source of the crying in the kitchen. The crying quietly subsided when Elaine but the bottle in the baby’s mouth.

Elaine smiled when she saw Holly. “Gail wanted to let you sleep and she needed to take a shower so she asked me to watch little Sophie. She tried to tell me that you agreed to rename her Gail Jr.”

Holly chuckled, “I don’t know. I’m really tired. I may have. I don’t remember what happened last….” But all too suddenly, Holly did remember what happened the night before. She remembered that Gail kissed her and they fell asleep cuddled together.

“Coffee?” Elaine asked, holding the baby with one arm and moving to the maker.

“Yes, please,” Holly sat down on one of the stools, “I can take her.”

Elaine got a coffee mug down with one hand and put it on the counter. She poured the coffee and added, “I’ve had two challenging children,” Elaine smiled over her shoulder, “A plastic computer baby is nothing. How do you take your coffee?”

“Double double,” Holly answered.

Elaine easily made the coffee how Holly liked it and set the coffee down in front of her. Elaine looked at the clock and saw that she needed to get going. “I’m going to drop this little one off with you.” Elaine carefully handed the back over to Holly. “I have brunch plans, but you are welcome to anything in the house. If it’s up to Gail, you’ll be eating pop tarts all day.”

Holly smiled gratefully, “That’s fine with me.”

“I can tell that you weren’t raised in this house,” Elaine patted Holly’s shoulder as she passed to get to her bedroom, “You’re so easy.”

Holly watched her walk off before looking at the baby. She held it like she was supposed to and took a sip of her coffee. She looked around the large kitchen and past the breakfast table, out the window, and into the beautiful backyard. It was a strange feeling for Holly to feel comfortable somewhere and she felt at home in the Peck house.

And it was harder with people, but Holly wasn’t nervous or suspicious of Gail or her motives. She felt that what she saw with Gail was what she was going to get.  She grew up in environments where trust was rare, but for whatever reason Holly trusted Gail.

Gail came down the stairs a few minutes later. She was in short cotton shorts and a t-shirt. “Did my mom leave?”

Holly nodded, “Yeah. She had a brunch to get to.”

Gail went straight for the coffee and poured herself some.

“Thanks for letting me sleep,” Holly told her. “I feel a lot better.”

“Good,” Gail nodded as she fixed up her coffee. She looked around the kitchen, “Did you eat?”

Holly shook her head, “I just got down here.”

Gail moved to the pantry and looked around, “Do you like pop tarts?”

Holly smiled. Elaine really knew her daughter. “Yeah.”

Gail tossed some pop tarts on the counter for Holly. She opened them with one hand and broke it apart to start eating. Gail moved over to the counter with her own and leaned on it across from Holly.

“When I was in the shower, I was trying to figure out something fun to do with a baby,” Gail took a bit of her pop tart, “And I came up with the conclusion that babies ruin everything fun.”

Holly smiled and tilted her head, “You can go do whatever you want. I can take care of Sophie.”

Gail shook her head, “This is our baby. I knocked you up. I’m taking responsibility for our baby.”

Holly’s mouth dropped open, “How come I’m the one that got knocked up in this scenario?”

“I’m rash and irresponsible,” Gail stated, taking a bite of her pop tart, “It makes more sense.”

“Ah okay,” Holly nodded. “I feel like I would have to be rash and irresponsible too though.”

Gail nodded. She leaned on the counter with an extended arm, “Right. Okay well. I can burp at least half the alphabet.”

“Oh well you totally win,” Holly laughed, “You get to be the guy.”

Gail picked up her coffee, “Well I wouldn’t call that a win.”

“What were you going to do this weekend?” Holly asked.

“I didn’t have plans,” Gail shrugged and ate more of her toaster pastry, “There was going to be a hot tub party tonight at Sue’s house before this baby thing happened.” Gail looked at the ceiling.

“Oh yeah,” Holly nodded, “She invited me to that.”

“She invited her ex?” Gail asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“We’re still friends,” the brunette looked down at the baby and wondered where the carrier was, “Sort of.”

“Hmm,” Gail went to the refrigerator and got out some grapes. She set them in front of Holly and took a few for herself, “I guess even if we weren’t taking care of this dumb baby, we would have met anyway.”

Holly pointed at Gail, “Hey, you said it yourself. She’s not dumb.”

“How good are you at video games?” Gail asked changing the subject.

Holly moved Sophie to her other arm, “Awful.”

The blonde grinned wickedly, “Great.”

Sophie slept for three matches of Holly trying to figure out how to look around and Gail sneaking up behind her prone and popping up for a melee attack, scaring Holly multiple times.

“Stop,” Holly laughed and pushed Gail away from her.

Gail only swayed a little bit and smiled. “I’m giving you the best change I can to kill me. I crawl everywhere. I changed my class so that I don’t even have a gun anymore.”

“Let’s do the zombie thing again,” Holly pointed to the TV. “I liked the zombie thing.”

Holly was terrible at video games. It seemed her attention span shortened a lot when she was playing video games because she’d bounce from room to room and window to window, but Gail thought it was cute. She changed the game mode and tried to protect Holly’s player as much as possible.

As they played, Gail got a little less animated. She swallowed and asked, “Can I ask you a question?”

Holly was sure that the question was about the kiss. She wasn’t ready to talk about it. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about it. However, she told Gail “yes,” and went back to trying not to die on screen.

“Why was Sue so surprised when you told her that we slept in the same bed?” Gail asked, taking out a zombie that was about to get Holly’s character.

Holly was a little relieved and a little disappointed. She kind of wanted to talk about the kiss and see what it meant to Gail. “Um, I…” Holly died on the game and then match was over. She looked down at the floor, “I’m not good at sharing a bed. If I don’t have to, I usually don’t want to because in foster care, everything is so crowded. There’s so many people and all the furniture is so small. Sometimes you have to share a bed. I just…I don’t know.”

Gail looked over at Holly, “You don’t have to sleep in here.”

“But I don’t -” Holly was getting frustrated with her lack of words. She couldn’t quite explain what it was that made her so comfortable in Gail’s bed. “It’s different with you.”

Gail put her controller down and played with her hands in her lap, “Yeah?”

“I don’t know why,” Holly confessed.

Gail nodded. She didn’t want Holly to feel vulnerable so she looked at her. “It is different.” She shrugged and started a new match, “I think it’s because you’re weird and I don’t like people.”

Holly knew that Gail wasn’t going to be able to keep it serious for long and was thankful for it. She was just going to accept Gail’s answer.

Gail ran around the map, rebuilding the barriers on the windows while thinking about what she just said. It wasn’t completely true. Sure Holly was a little weird and Gail didn’t like most people. But Gail liked Holly. She wanted to keep her around and she wanted to spend time with her. She didn’t know in what capacity or in what way, but she did know that Holly was important and she wanted the weekend to take it’s time.

The baby interrupted the game and they sat close together on the end of the bed, trying to figure out what the baby needed that time. They got her to calm down and then Gail just held her for a few minutes.

“Is it okay if I go take a shower?” Holly asked softly so she wouldn’t wake the baby up.

“Yeah,” Gail gestured to the bathroom that was attached to her bedroom, “The towels are in the cabinet.”

“Thanks,” Holly got up off of the bed and closed the door behind her.

Gail was getting hungry so she took the baby down to the kitchen to see what she could dig up. She was thinking about Holly and how much she knew about her. It wasn’t a lot, but she knew Holly was a good person. She was a smart person and she was one of the few people in the world that Gail enjoyed being around.

Holly came down the stairs while Gail was holding the baby and trying to get a bag of cheese puffs down. Holly walked into the kitchen and reached over Gail to get the cheese puffs. They were well within each other’s personal space when they both stopped reaching, but for two people who were vastly uncomfortable in close proximity to others, they weren’t in a huge rush to get away from each other.

Holly was the first one to take a step back. She ran a hand over her damp hair. “How about I make lunch?”

Gail looked at the cheese puffs in her hand. She nodded, “Yeah. If you don’t mind.”

Holly looked in the refrigerator and then the pantry. Gail went up to get her laptop and the baby carrier. When she got back downstairs, she set the carrier on the breakfast bar and put Sophie in it. Then she opened her laptop and sat down on one of the stools.

Gail rested her chin in her palm as she searched through her social media page. Chris and Dov were posting less pictures of themselves with their baby and Gail was sure it had something to do with the bickering that they were doing a school on Friday. Andy kept posting pictures with captions that Gail was sure were just to make it seem like her baby’s head didn’t fall off and she was a good parent.

She found Holly’s page. It was bare and rarely used. It mostly consisted of pictures Holly was tagged in and Rodney checking in places with Holly. Gail decided to add her as a friend anyway. Then she looked through Holly’s short list of online friends and found Sue. She opened Sue’s page. The last few updates were shared articles about robotics.

Gail mused that Holly and Sue were probably intellectually matched. She wondered what made them break up. How did two people so alike, decide they stopped having fun together?

She scrolled down and saw that Sue was posting pictures with Andy, posing their baby with soccer balls and other things they were interested in. Gail groaned softly and rolled her eyes.

“What are you doing over there?” Holly asked with a smile. She’d been watching Gail roll her eyes and make faces at the computer screen for the past twenty minutes while she prepared the ingredients for lunch.

Gail shrugged, “Just looking at the pictures Andy and Sue are posting with their baby.” Gail shook her head, “They’re dumb.”

Holly smiled. “Did they post pictures of Sue soldering the head back on?”

Gail laughed. “They should. I would print it out and frame it. Perfect McNally knocked her baby’s head off. That’s going to be my graduation quote.”

Holly quickly finished the quesadillas and slid a plate in front of Gail. She stood across from her and ate her own while standing in the kitchen.

“Sue’s an idiot,” Gail stated after her first bite.

Holly quirked an eyebrow mid-bite and covered her mouth when she asked, “Why’s that?”

“These quesadillas are amazing,” Gail grinned.

“Thank you,” Holly chuckled.

Gail swallowed her bit and grabbed a napkin out of the holder on the counter. She wiped her mouth. “I’m still trying to figure out how she didn’t have fun with you.” Gail picked up her phone and turned the camera on. She turned around so that Holly and the baby in the background of her selfie with a quesadilla. Holly made a face similar to Gail’s. Then Gail took another one where she was pretending to feed the baby.

Gail posted the pictures online with the caption, “Lunch with Sophie and my baby mama.” She showed it to Holly who rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.

After lunch, Gail looked around the house, “I gotta get out of here.” She picked up her plate and took it to the sink. The baby started crying and Holly picked it up. It immediately stopped when Holly gently bounced it. Gail leaned back on the counter in front of the sink, “There’s a drive-in movie place across town. I say we go do that so we can take the baby.”

“That actually sounds really fun,” Holly smiled, “I never knew there was a drive-in here.”

Gail nodded, “There’s one downtown and there’s one across town. They play old horror movies on the weekend. I wanted to go, but I couldn’t get anyone to go with me.”

“I’ll go with you,” Holly could barely believe that no one wanted to go to a drive-in with Gail. “That sounds really fun.”

Gail had to admit she was a little surprised. Most people she knew didn’t like old movies. They liked high def CGI and explosions. But she knew that Holly was different from everyone that she’d ever met. “Cool,” Gail smiled. She turned her laptop toward herself, “Let’s see what’s playing.”

The movie didn’t start until much later, so they went outside to soak up some sun. Holly’s phone vibrated next to her on the patio table. She picked it up and opened the text that she just got. She hummed in confusion.

“What is it?” Gail asked, looking over at Holly.

“Sue asked if I wanted to come over,” Holly tried to figure out what to say back.

Gail scrunched up her nose, “Ew. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Holly looked at the text as if reading it again would give her a clue as to Sue’s intentions. She finally texted back that she couldn’t. She had to watch the baby and she was going to the drive-in with Gail later.

Holly tapped her phone to her leg and felt it vibrate in her hand. Holly saw Gail waiting to hear what the text was about. Holly leaned back in her chair. “She asked how it’s going with you.”

“Fucking amazing,” Gail stretched out the length of her lounger, “Tell her I’m a delight.”

Holly smiled and typed it just the way Gail said it. “I am having fun,” Holly added. “Even when you’re not making me say it.”

“Me too,” Gail closed her eyes and soaked up the sun. “You’re, like, the coolest chick ever.”

No one in Holly’s entire life had called her the coolest anything. Not ever her friends, not even her girlfriends. Holly smiled contently up at the sky, reveling in the compliment from the coolest chick she’d ever met.

Gail’s phone was the next to buzz with a text. When she opened it, she found that Andy was asking if she would mind if they came to the drive-in too. Gail groaned. She looked over at Holly, “McNally wants to know if she and Sue can come to the drive-In too.”

Holly shrugged, “I don’t care.” She wasn’t sure how seeing Sue would go. Something about the way Sue was starting to act was spiking Holly’s interest. They had been kind of friends after they broke up, but Sue never asked her to come over and hang out.

“I’m not picking them up,” Gail grumbled as she texted back that they didn’t care.

Holly felt it was kind of nice that a self-proclaimed grouch liked her. Gail had never said a cross word to her and she cursed half the people that they talked about. It made her feel special, like she was an exception. It was a nice change because most of the time Holly felt like she blended into the wallpaper.

The baby started crying a few minutes later. Holly took the baby inside to change it. Gail only stayed outside for a moment before she went into the house.

She didn’t see Holly in the living room so she figured Holly went upstairs. It was quiet when Gail went up the stairs so she didn’t rush. About halfway up the stairs, she heard Holly talking.

There was an exasperated sigh before Holly quietly said, “It doesn’t matter.” She paused, “I know. I will.” There was another pause, “I’ll be back before the social worker visit…yeah.”

Gail didn’t realize that she stopped walking, but when she was sure that Holly was done talking, she resumed walking up the stairs. When she got to the doorway she found Holly changing the baby with a pensive look on her face.

“You need any help?” Gail asked softly from the door. She leaned on the frame and didn’t let on that she heard anything.

Holly shook her head and snapped up the baby’s clothes. She tossed the onesie that the baby was wearing onto her bag on the floor. She picked up the baby and turned around. Holly looked at Gail, “I have to go back to…the house tomorrow. Just until the social worker leaves. It’ll be like an hour.” Holly caught Gail’s eyes, “Can you take care of her or –“

Gail interrupted the question, “Of course.”

“Thanks,” Holly patted Sophie’s stomach. “I’ll have Rodney come pick me up.”

“I can take you,” Gail offered. She took one step into the room and one to the side so that she could lean back onto the wall.

Holly shook her head, “No I…You don’t have to.” She looked down and then forced her eyes to meet Gail’s. Her jaw shifted in discomfort.

Gail knew that Holly didn’t want her anywhere near her home life. She kind of wanted to know exactly what Holly was hiding, but she was going to respect what Holly wanted. Gail watched Holly put the baby in the carrier before she said, “If you need me to come pick you up, just call me or text me. Whatever.”

Holly smiled sadly and swallowed back a boiling tide of emotions rising up her throat. “Thank you.”

Gail wanted to hug Holly or something. She felt a strong need to protect her, but she didn’t make a move. She just stood there feeling less brave than she expected of herself.

Instead, she changed the subject, “We should get going if we want to get a good spot.”

Holly agreed and started gathering all the baby stuff. She grabbed a sweater. Gail saw her do that and grabbed one of her sweaters as well just in case. They quietly walked to the car and Gail helped Holly buckle the carrier in.


	4. Chapter 4

They arrived at the drive-in a little early and parked in the second row. Holly watched Gail pay and was starting to get uncomfortable with Gail paying for everything even though it didn’t seem like Gail gave it any mind at all. Holly did have some money that her foster parents gave her. It was a small percentage of what they were paid by the government to keep her. It was just enough so that Holly never had to ask them for money for when had school expenses, but it wasn’t enough for more than her expenses and a movie or two a month. They gave all the foster kids phones so that they could keep track of them. Holly had to save up for a few months to upgrade her phone from a bare basic model. She really just wanted a phone that she could download an ebook app on and it took her a few months to get it.

“Do you think this movie is going to scare Sophie?” Gail asked. She could see that Holly was deep in thought and it didn’t look happy so she decided to lighten the mood, “Are we being bad parents?”

Holly did smile and was thankful for it. “It’s an old movie. We’re being good parents. She’ll grow up with an appreciation for the classics.”

Gail grinned, “Yes.”

Holly reached for the door and opened it, “I’m going to go get some snacks.”

“I can-” Gail stared, but Holly got out of the car before she could offer to get them. Gail looked back at the baby that was silently in the back seat, “I need you to chill tonight okay? Your mom is a little stressed out.”

The baby didn’t say anything. Gail tuned her radio so that they could hear the movie. Currently ads were flashing across the screen with music from the 1920s was playing quietly. Gail reclined her seat a little so she could relax and see the screen better.

Gail looked to her left when she saw another car pulling it. It was a sporty SUV driven by Chris and containing Dov. Gail rolled down her window. Dov knew who they were parking next to and rolled down his window as well.

“What are you doing here?” Gail asked, less than thrilled that they were there.

Chris looked over, “Andy told us that you had this idea.”

“We had to go get out of my house,” Dov shook his head, “My folks keep trying to get us to feed it black bean lentils burgers even though I keep telling them that it can’t eat.”

When Chris reached behind the seat to do something, he knocked into the baby carrier and it started crying. Gail rolled her eyes and rolled up her window.

Holly returned to the car with a small box of food and soda. She sat down in her seat, “Sue and Andy are pulling in right now. I think I saw Chloe and Nick across the lot. Does Nick drive a blue truck?”

Gail nodded, “Word spreads fast.”

Holly smiled, “Well there’s not much for teen parents to do in the city. You’re just the most creative of us.” Holly picked up a bag of cheese puffs and handed them over to Gail.

“Thank you,” Gail took them. Holly set nachos on the console between them and put two sodas in the cup holders.

Holly reclined her seat to make it even with Gail’s as a car pulled in to their right. Gail groaned when she saw Andy pulling her car into the spot next to theirs. Sue was in the backseat feeding the baby.

Andy looked at their car and seemed surprised to find both Gail and Holly looking at her. She smiled and waved. Gail had a cheese puff hanging out of her mouth when she unconvincingly faked a smile and waved. Holly was nicer about it and waved back.

It looked like Andy was about to roll down her window, but the movie started and Gail sighed in relief. She leaned back in her seat, ready to enjoy the movie. Holly turned up the volume so they could hear it better.

There were few distractions during the first half of the movie. Around the thirty-second minute the baby started crying, but Holly got the baby out of the seat and held it. It stopped almost immediately.

“Can you hold her for a minute?” Holly whispered to Gail. “I’m getting cold. I’m going to put my sweater on.”

Gail nodded. She took the baby and watched Holly pick up her sweater. As Holly put it on, Gail saw a small hole in the arm of the sweater. It made her wonder how long Holly had had that sweater. Most of Gail’s clothes never got close to that point before she went and bought new ones.

Gail picked up the part of the sweater closest to her and helped Holly put it on. Holly smiled gratefully, “Thank you.”

Gail didn’t give the baby back. She was comfortable with the baby laying in the crook of her arm. She just watched the movie without really paying attention to it. She cared about Holly deeply. She wasn’t sure what it was about Holly that made her want to be around her, but it was the same thing that felt a pang of sadness when she realized what kind of life that Holly lived and knowing how she deserved so much more.

Even though the movie was cheesy, Gail would see Holly getting a little jumpy. When a monster popped out, Holly jumped. Gail reached over and took her hand with a smile. It was just meant to be a friendly reminder that the movie wasn’t real, but when she held Holly’s hand, she remembered that night when she kissed Holly. She remembered what it felt like and how comfortable it was, sleeping with her head on Holly’s shoulder. She wasn’t sure why she kissed Holly. It just seemed like something she should do – something her body was telling her to do – and in her exhausted and mentally fatigued state, she did it. When Holly didn’t say anything about it, Gail chose not to either because she was scared that she embarrassed Holly or misinterpreted something.

Gail could practically see the monster creeping up behind the overdressed for bed woman, but apparently Holly didn’t. Gail was having more fun watching Holly than she did watching the movie. The monster popped out onto the screen and Holly nearly jumped out of her seat. Gail laughed. She moved the nachos to the dashboard and folded the console that was between them up. Then she pulled Holly into her by her sleeve.

Holly leaned into Gail, settling between the back of Gail’s shoulder and the seat of the car, trying to protect herself from any more jumping monsters. Gail smiled and rested her cheek on top of Holly’s head. It was nice to just sit with someone. As much as Holly felt like she should be worrying about what it meant or perhaps how she was invading Gail’s personal space, but she couldn’t because she was feeling something that was rare for her to feel. She felt comfortable with Gail.

The movie played through to the end. Holly had been engrossed in it while Gail was contently watching Holly’s reaction to the end of the movie.

Holly sat up when the movie was over and stretched.

“Are you okay?” Gail asked with a playful smile, “I thought you were going to have heart attack there a couple of times.”

Holly smiled back, “I probably should have told you that I don’t watch horror movies that often.”

“No it was great,” Gail picked up Sophie and handed her to Holly, “She was less scared than you.”

Holly decided to change the baby before they put her back in the carrier. Gail got the trash from their snacks and got out of the car to take it to the trash can. It was getting chilly outside so Gail jogged to the trashcan at the end of the line of parked cars. When she got back to the car, Holly was putting the baby back into the carrier.

“Are you hungry?” Gail asked over the top of the car as Holly closed the backseat.

Holly nodded. “Being scared makes me hungry.” She shared a smile with Gail before opening her door.

Gail got into the car and closed her door. She grabbed her phone off the dashboard and started looking up where they could eat. “We could go to another drive-in. Apparently people back in the day liked to spend a lot of time in their cars.”

“Whatever you want to do,” Holly sat down in the car.

Before she could close the door Andy rolled down her window and called, “Are you guys going home?”

“No. We’re going to eat,” Holly explained, knowing that because of Gail’s sporadic dislike of Andy, she might not want Andy to know where they were going.

Of course Andy asked where and Chris and Dov butted into the conversation. Chloe had walked over on her way to the bathroom and heard them talking about food.

“Why do I have to plan ever outing for these idiots?” Gail muttered to herself.

Holly heard her and smiled.

Then Gail looked past Holly toward Andy and Chloe who was standing next to Andy’s open window. Gail glanced at Sue, but didn’t really care if she came because as far as she knew Sue was the dumbest person on the planet for breaking up with Holly. “There aren’t any drive-ins open right now.” Gail looked through her phone.

“There’s a twenty-four hour diner down the street,” Chloe gestured behind herself. “We could go there. I don’t think we’ll disturb anyone there. There’s a heated patio we could sit on.”

Everyone agreed and got in their respective cars to go to the diner.

“Are you okay going to dinner with…everyone that is going to be there?” Gail asked delicately.

Holly nodded, “Of course.” She looked over at Gail, “Sue and I are okay. It might be a little awkward, but it’ll be okay.”

Gail nodded. She didn’t want Holly to be uncomfortable at all. She was getting frustrated by her strange need to make sure that Holly was happy and comfortable. She didn’t know how to classify it and she felt the need to.

Gail followed Nick and Chloe down the street. Chloe was right and it was just a few blocks down the street. Gail noticed Holly yawn and asked if she was okay. Holly nodded, “Just a little tired.”

Gail parked in the parking lot next to Nick and turned the car off, “Do you want to get it to-go? We can go home.”

“No,” Holly smiled at Gail’s concern, “Really, I’m okay.”

“Alright,” Gail took her keys and grabbed her bag, “I’ll get Gail Jr.” Gail got out of the car before Holly could say anything.

Holly got out of the car as well and waited at the front of the car for Gail to join her with the baby. Holly crossed her arms against the cold, “I did not agree to change her name.”

“C’mon,” Gail started walking inside with Holly, “Gail Jr. really likes her new name.”

Holly shook her head, “That can be her middle name.”

“Sophie Gail Peck,” Gail smiled dreamily when the rest of the group walked over.

Holly furrowed her eyebrows, “How come we kept your last name?”

“Because I let you pick where we got married and the trade off was that our firstborn gets my last name,” Gail said when the rest of the group got behind them. They all started walking in together.

“You guys are really getting into this family thing,” Andy commented as she passed Gail to walk into the diner.

“I can’t help it,” Gail shrugged, “Holly’s a method actor. She already bought us side by side burial plots.”

Holly laughed and followed Gail into the diner. “You’re insane, you know that right?”

Since there was no one else in the diner, they pushed some tables together and all sat at a long table. Chris put his head in his hands, “I fell asleep during the movie. I have worst headache.”

“I wish I could have fallen asleep,” Andy added, “Termie cried during most of the movie.”

“Babies are awful,” Sue leaned back in her chair and rubbed her face.

Gail immediately added, “I don’t know why you’re all complaining. This is easy.” Gail looked over at Holly, “Or maybe I just have the best baby mama in the world.” Gail looked over at Sue to see if her words had their intended effect. Sue did look over at Holly with a confused look on her face, so Gail figured that her job was done.

“My baby mama sleeps like a log and won’t wake up when the baby cries at night,” Chloe huffed.

“Hey,” Nick looked across the table at Chloe, “You know that soup makes me sleepy.”

For the weekend, they were a lethargic group of teens. Everyone was tired and not very talkative. Gail ordered a burger, fries, and a shake. Holly got a burger and water, but Gail put the fries and shake between them, stealing sips of Holly’s water occasionally. Holly didn’t really even notice. She was slouched in her chair trying to find it in herself to be social.

Gail put her arm on the back of Holly’s chair without actually touching Holly. She was just resting her arm there, but Sue saw it.

 “I don’t see how this is going to help us with actual children,” Dov finally spoke, breaking the silence, “None of us have a bond with the baby. We didn’t see it come into the world. It doesn’t grab my finger and smile at me. It would be different if the baby was actively cute.”

“Robot baby, human baby,” Gail looked up wistfully, “Don’t all their heads pop off in the end.”

Nick, Chloe, Dov, and Chris looked at Gail like she’d lost her mind. Sue and Andy looked like they were ready to gag her and drag her off into the night. Holly tried to bury a snicker by shoving a bunch of fries in her mouth.

“Gail has not been getting a lot of sleep,” Holly tried to make an excuse for Gail, while not tipping anyone else off to Andy and Sue’s misfortune.

Gail nodded, “It’s true.” She dug in her bag and threw a few bills on the table, “I’m ready to go home and get some sleep.”

The group slowly paid and made their way to the door. Chris was about to finish a sentence that started, “We’re lucky none of the babies started crying while-” when his baby started wailing. He and Chris rushed to his vehicle and jumped in to hurry the baby back home.

“Thanks for coming to dinner with us,” Chloe smiled to the ladies as they all shuffled to their cars, “And Gail, for thinking of the drive-in. It was nice to get out of the house.”

“Yeah, well don’t say I never gave you anything,” Gail looked over her shoulder at Chloe. She used her key fob to unlock her car. She put the baby in and then opened the passenger door for Holly.

“See you,” Andy called to the group as she and Sue walked to her car.

“Bye Holly,” Sue added, following Andy to the car.

Gail sang softly to herself after Holly waved to Sue, but before she closed the passenger’s door, “Somebody’s jealous.”

“Jealous of what?” Holly asked, genuinely wondering.

Gail smiled at Holly who really had no idea how much Gail reveled in her presence. She didn’t answer the question. She just closed the door and walked to her side of the car.

Gail was basically asleep the second she fell down, face first, on the bed. Holly set the baby carrier on the ground next to the bed and surveyed the blonde, “You still have your clothes on.”

Gail groaned and wiggled her feet. Holly was apparently fluent in Gail already because she knew that meant I’m too tired to undress myself do it for me.

Holly started with Gail’s shoes, placing them in the closet when they were off. Then she walked to the bed and poked the back of Gail’s knee, “I can’t get your jeans off if I can’t get to the zipper.”

Gail rolled over slowly and unbuttoned her own jeans. Holly pulled them off by the ankles and tossed them into the dirty clothes bin the corner of the room. By the time she turned around, Gail was already covered with a blanket and snoring lightly.

Holly looked down at her relaxed face with adoring smile. Before she started to make herself doubt anything about their relationship, Holly put the baby in the bed and laid down on the other side of it. Holly easily followed Gail into sleep with a content smile on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

If it hadn’t been for the five times the baby woke up shrieking in the middle of the night, Gail would have slept great. Instead she was sitting at the kitchen bar with a dead tired look on her face, almost identical to Holly’s. Bill was whistling while had made pancakes.

Holly was slowly nursing her coffee while Gail had given up on trying to lift the mug. She just looked at it and tried to osmosis the caffeine through the air. The baby was quiet between them in the carrier on the bar.

Holly’s phone buzzed on the counter and she picked it up. She read the text and then turned to Gail, “Rodney’s going to pick me up at eleven. Are you sure you’ll be okay with the baby?”

Gail nodded, “Yeah. Of course.”

Gail’s answer made Holly feel a little better about leaving the baby with her, “It’ll only be like an hour.”

After breakfast, Holly went upstairs to get dressed and Gail laid on the couch watching TV with the baby. She wasn’t really watching though. She was thinking about Holly and how her home life wasn’t spectacular, but Holly still managed to shine.

Gail left the baby on the couch and walked up the stairs. When she got to the hallway where the bedrooms were, she found Holly walking out of the guest room, fully dressed.

Gail walked right up to Holly and put her arms around Holly’s waist, pulling her into a surprise hug.

“Gail, what’s-” Holly started to ask.

Gail cut her off, “Just shut up for a minute okay?” She tilted her head down so that she could place her face on Holly’s shoulder.

Holly wanted to know what was wrong, but whatever upset Gail, she apparently didn’t want to talk about it so she just put her arm on Gail’s shoulders and crossed them behind her neck, trying to comfort her with whatever problem she was having.

When Gail pulled away she saw the confused look on Holly’s face. She just looked over Holly’s face and shook her head. She didn’t know what to say to explain how she felt. She didn’t want Holly to have to go back to that place. She wanted Holly to stay with her and be somewhere she could be herself and feel protected. She wanted Holly to stay with her and be…loved.

Gail touched Holly’s face softly and wondered what would happen if she kissed Holly again, this time in broad daylight. She would have to explain herself. She would have to face what was happening in her head and in her heart when she was around Holly and she wasn’t sure she could do that yet.

“Just…come back as soon as you can,” Gail told Holly, dropping all physical contact with her.

Holly nodded, “I will.” With one last forced smile, Holly walked past Gail and to the front door.

Gail sat on the couch and watched TV. She waited and she waited. She stared at the TV, but couldn’t see anything, but colors blurring together because she was worried about Holly. Finally Gail wasn’t able to sit still anymore. She went upstairs and into the guest room where Holly was keeping her stuff. Gail hesitated only for a second before starting to dig through the bag. She lucked out finding Holly’s wallet. When she opened it she found Holly’s driver’s license, a bank card, and four one dollar bills.

Gail put the address on the license into her phone and then dropped the wallet back into the bag. Gail grabbed Sophie and made her way to the door. She realized just as she was about to open the door that she didn’t have the carrier.

However at that moment, the door was opening from the outside. When Gail saw Steve, she shoved the baby into his arms and ran to her car, “Take care of Sophie.”

“It’s a plastic baby,” Steve called after her.

Gail ignored him. She got in her car and drove off down the street, following the directions of her GPS. She knew that her school consisted of people who lived close by, but she never really ventured far into the less nice part of her school’s jurisdiction.

She’d been in worse parts of town on ride-alongs with her parents. They wanted to show her how lucky she was to live in a quiet, safe neighborhood. Holly’s neighborhood wasn’t as bad as she’d seen, but Gail was definitely farther away from her socio-economic background than she expected.

When her GPS told her to stop, Gail looked at the two story house that donned Holly’s address. She looked over the faded siding and unkept yard. A chain link fence separated the brown grass from the cracked sidewalk. Gail’s jaw clenched. This wasn’t somewhere that beautiful, brilliant Holly should live. Holly should have the best of everything.

There was a beat up sedan in front of the house. Gail guessed that was the social worker’s. She didn’t even know what she was doing across the street from the house. It was stupid. It was impulsive. Gail just swallowed and decided to go back to the house. Steve had probably left the baby alone in the house while he went out with his friends. Then Holly wouldn’t get her ‘A’, she wouldn’t get to go to the college of her choice, and she’d never speak to Gail again.

Gail got a text and decided to check it before she took off. It was from Dov asking what she was doing because he was bored and wanted to get out of the house. Gail rolled her eyes and tossed her phone into the passenger’s seat. Dov was going to have to come up with his own plan.

Just as she was putting her car into gear, Gail saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw that the door was now open. An older, balding man pushed someone out the door. It may have been shock or disbelief, or the fact that Gail couldn’t see her face initially, but when Gail saw that Holly was the one that had been shoved out the door, her blood boiled.

The man put his finger in Holly’s face as he scolded her for something Gail couldn’t imagine. Holly said something back, crossing her arms. The man grabbed Holly’s arm and even from across the street, Gail could see that it was hurting Holly.

Gail was out of her car and across her street before she even realized she was moving. “Hey,” Gail called when she got close.

Both the man and Holly turned around at the sound of her voice.

“What the hell are you?” the man asked.

“Take your hand off of her,” Gail growled at the man. She was trying to remember all the things she’d learned on all the ride-alongs she’d ever been on. She was trying to not raise her voice and she was trying to be diplomatic.

The man pushed Holly behind him and squared up with Gail, “What are you going to do about it?”

“Gail, just go,” Holly sighed. She didn’t want her foster dad to do something to Gail. He had never hit her and she’d never seen him hit any of the other kids, but she was sure that he would if he was pushed far enough.

Gail didn’t look away from the man. He was trying to intimidate her and it wasn’t going to work. She was a Peck. The only person that could intimidate her was her mother. “What are you going to do about it, little girl?” He moved toward Gail and Gail stood her ground.

Holly put her hand on the man’s arm. He whipped his arm back, hitting Holly’s arm away from him and causing her to stumble

Gail didn’t look away from the man as she spoke, “Holly, you can go get in the car if you want to. I’ll take you to my house. You know that you don’t have to stay here.”

“Yes she does,” the man stepped between Gail and Holly. “I am her guardian. What I say goes.”

“The only person that can tell me to leave is Holly,” Gail answered, her fists clenching.

The man pulled his phone out of his pocket, “I’m calling the cops.”

A wicked smile crossed Gail’s face, “Please do.”

The door opened behind them and a younger woman stuck her head out, “Everything okay out here?”

The man’s demeanor changed completely. He smiled pleasantly at her, “Of course. Holly’s friend just came by to say hi.”

Gail caught Holly’s eyes when the man wasn’t looking. Holly looked conflicted. She swallowed and looked at the man who never cared for her and then to the girl who apparently cared enough to stalk her or something.

By the time the man and the social worker turned around, Holly and Gail were in Gail’s car.

Holly leaned on the door. What she had just done was just sinking in. She left in front of a social worker and that would make it messy. She leaned on the door and sighed, “How did you find me?”

“You left your wallet in your bag,” Gail confessed. She shrugged, knowing that she was going again Holly’s wishes in even laying eyes on that house. “I know I should have. I just panicked.”

“Why?” Holly asked, completely bewildered.

Gail looked at the steering wheel when they stopped at a red light, “I don’t know.” She sighed, “You don’t deserve that.”

Holly licked her lips, “I don’t need you to save me.”

“I know,” Gail quietly answered, “You are doing really well on your own.” Gail was being earnest. “You don’t need me.” She looked over at Holly for moment as she drove, “But you have me.”

Holly’s phone rang before she could answer. She saw who it was and immediately didn’t want to answer. She ran a hand through her hair, “It’s the social worker.” Holly went through all the worst case scenarios in her head, “They’re going to call the cops.”

“We’re going to call the cops,” Gail answered, “We’ll talk to my mom. She’ll know what to do.” She reached next to her and took Holly’s hand. “It’ll be okay.”

They drove in silence for a moment before Holly jerked back into a panicked state, “Where’s Sophie?”

“I left her with my brother,” Gail smiled a little. It was cute that Holly was worried about their pretend baby when her whole life was being thrown into a blender.

Before they got too close to her house, Gail let go of Holly’s hand and picked up her phone out of the cup holder. She called her mom and pressed her phone to her ear.

“Peck,” Elaine answered her phone the same way that she always did.

Gail licked her lips and glanced over at Holly before saying, “Are you home?”

“Almost,” Elaine stated, “Why?”

“I need to talk to you when you get home,” Gail said right away. “It’s serious.”

There was a pause, “Is something wrong?”

“Sort of,” Gail sighed, “It’s not really something I want to talk about over the phone. Just…when you get home, I need to talk to you.”

“Alright,” Elaine replied evenly. “Your father and I will be home in two minutes.”

“Okay, bye,” Gail hung up and put her phone back where it was.

There was silence in the car until Gail pulled to a stop outside of her house. She looked over at Holly who was deep in thought. She didn’t really want to interrupt, but she figured that getting inside the house would be safer in case the unhinged man that Holly lived with had followed them, “Are you okay?”

Holly shrugged and answered honestly, “I don’t know.”

Gail put her hand on Holly shoulder and moved it to the middle of her back. “I’m sorry.”

Holly shook her head, just trying to get a grasp on everything, “It was going to happen eventually. I’m at the end of my rope with him. I finally said something.” She did let out a small smile and looked over at Gail, “I guess you’re rubbing off on me.” Gail shared the smile with Holly.

Holly opened her door and got out of the car. Gail followed her. They stepped into the house and found Steve on the couch with the baby resting in the crook of his arm, watching soccer.

“Sorry,” Gail told her brother and took the baby.

Steve shrugged, “It’s fine. She didn’t make a peep.” He stood up and extended his hand to Holly, “I’m Steve.”

“Holly,” the brunette shook his hand.

“What’s going on?” Steve put his hands on his hips and looked at his sister.

Gail just subtly shook her head. Steve understood what that meant. He nodded to himself, “I am going to go see what’s in the fridge. I haven’t bought food for my apartment in two weeks.” Steve wandered off to the kitchen and disappeared around the corner. At the same time, the front door opened. Elaine and Bill walked in together.

“Let’s talk at the kitchen table,” Elaine demanded under the guise of a suggestion.

Bill and Steve went into the backyard while Holly, Gail, and Elaine sat down at the table with the baby.

Under Elaine’s eyes, suddenly Holly felt like she couldn’t speak. She looked over at Gail and bit her lip.

“Holly’s in foster care,” Gail started speaking for her. She explained it in plain simple language, like her mother taught her to recount things, grooming her to become the perfect police officer, “She had to go back for a social worker visit. I got worried and drove over there. While I was sitting outside, Holly’s guardian pushed her outside and was yelling at her. He grabbed her arm and that’s when I got out of the car.”

 Elaine listened to the story quietly before getting up from the table. She retrieved and pen and notepad from one of the drawers in the kitchen. She started asking Holly a series of questions. It was mostly names and past events.

“How many other children are there in that home?” Elaine asked. There was something akin to anger in Elaine’s eyes.

“Seven,” Holly answered, “Including me.”

Elaine shook her head as she wrote. “When is your seventeenth birthday?”

“Two months,” Holly wondered what was going on.

“Where they going to let you stay with them until you graduated?” Elaine asked as she continued writing.

Holly shook her head and Gail added, “I told her she could stay here.”

After a moment, Elaine tapped her pen on the pad and then looked over to Holly. “How would you like to move in with us right now?”

“Me?” Holly blinked. “Now?”

Elaine nodded, “I know you have complete autonomy now, but moving in here would mean that you follow the same rules that Gail does. Same curfew. Same expectations. You won’t be our legal ward because by the time the paperwork was processed, you’d already be well past 17 and probably gone for college, but I’m sure I can get temporary custodianship by tomorrow.”

Holly looked at Gail. She wanted to make sure that Gail was okay with everything. Gail just gave her a reassuring smile, hoping that Holly would say yes. Holly looked at the table, “What happens to the other kids?”

“After there has been a finding of misconduct,” Elaine leaned forward, “All the children will be removed from the house and placed in different housing. We’ll make sure they’re taken care of.”

“I should have said something sooner,” Holly sighed. She felt bad that there were probably children in that house that were actually being hit and she hadn’t spoken up sooner. She was just afraid that they would all be sent somewhere worse because she had been to places that were a lot worse. She explained her hesitancy to Elaine because she felt that she owed it to her and she didn’t want Elaine to think she was a coward because what the Pecks thought about her meant a lot to her.

Elaine put her hand on Holly’s arm, “Sweetheart, this isn’t your fault.”

Gail gently rubbed Holly’s back, trying to comfort Holly in any way she could. She knew that her mom was using her ‘speaking with a victim’ voice so she knew that this was all probably a lot worse than Gail understood.

Holly’s face showed her doubt that it wasn’t her fault. She licked her lips and rubbed her eyes under her glasses, trying to hold it together. The last few days had been such a beautiful break from the life that she was determined not to live anymore.

Elaine put on a smile for Holly, “I am going to go make some phone calls. If you have anything left at that house, I’ll have an officer escort you over there and to get it tomorrow.”

Holly thought it over. She didn’t have much to begin with, but most of what she had was in the guest room upstairs.

When she didn’t answer, Elaine just gently patted her arm and stood, “I know you might not want to go back over there. You are welcome to anything in Gail’s vast closet. God knows she has more clothes than half the city. And if you need anything else, let me know.”

Holly just nodded silently. When Elaine stood up and walked away, Gail touched Holly’s arm, “Do you want to go upstairs? Or go get something to eat? Or we can go egg Sue’s house?”

Holly quirked an eyebrow.

Gail grinned, “Okay we’re not going to do that then.”

“Do you mind if we go upstairs and just…” Holly trailed off and shrugged. She didn’t know what she wanted to do.

They both went upstairs to Gail’s room. Holly laid down on the bed and Gail set the baby down next to her. Then Gail moved to the closet. She started going through her clothes. She knew what she was looking for. She had been thinking about giving Holly what she was looking for the second that she saw the hole in Holly’s sweater.

Gail picked out a grey cardigan that still had the tag on it. Gail didn’t even really remember where she got the sweater or why, but it definitely looked like something Holly would like. When Gail stepped out, Holly was staring at the ceiling.

Gail looked down at the sweater in her hands that was still on the hanger. She walked out of the room, across the hall, and into the guest room. She hung up the sweater in the closet and then walked to her room.

“What are you doing?” Holly asked quietly, looking from the ceiling to Gail.

Gail walked to the bed and laid down, “Putting your sweater up in your closet.” She looked over at Holly. As horrible as the situation was, she was happy that her time with Holly wasn’t almost over.

There was a faint smile on Holly’s face. She turned to Gail, “Thank you.”

Gail shrugged, “More room in my closet for new clothes.” She didn’t really want to make it look like she had actually noticed the hole in Holly’s sweater.

Holly phone rang in her hand and she looked at the screen. It was the one person in the entire world she didn’t want to talk to. She ended the call and looked back up at the ceiling. “This is so weird. I mean, it all happened so fast.”

Gail joined Holly in looking at the ceiling. She didn’t know what to say so she just reached over and took Holly’s hand. Their hands just slid together so Gail’s fingers slipped loosely through Holly’s. Gail slowly stroked up and down the length of the side of Holly’s hand with her thumb.

Holly’s phone rang again and she ended the call immediately. She sighed, “He’s not going to stop.”

“Who is not going to stop?” Elaine’s voice came from the door.

Holly sat up quickly, slightly frightened by the sudden intrusion. She dropped Gail’s hand immediately as well. Gail pushed up on her elbows. “The foster guy keeps calling her.”

As if on cue, the phone rang.

Elaine held her hand out and Holly handed the phone over. Elaine pressed the answer button and put the phone to her ear, “Hello?....This is Staff Inspector Elaine Peck with the Toronto Police Service. Who is this?....hello? hello?” Elaine handed the phone back to Holly, “I don’t think you’ll have a problem anymore.”

“Thank you,” Holly smiled, so grateful to have all the Pecks in her life.

“You’re welcome,” Elaine smiled. She lingered in the doorway, “We’re going out to a family dinner. Both of you need to be ready to leave in ten minutes.”

“What about the baby?” Gail asked.

“Bring it,” Elaine turned around and walked out, “And do something about your hair, Gail Elaine.”

Holly ducked her head, her hair falling around her face. She had never really had a family dinner in her life and her inclusion in it was exciting. She looked behind her at Gail who was smiling as well.

“What are you smiling at, nerd?” Gail asked with a playful grin.

Holly pushed Gail’s legs off of the bed, “Go do something about your hair, Gail Elaine.”


	6. Chapter 6

“I think its batteries are dead,” Gail commented, looking at the baby in the seat between her and Holly.

“Don’t say things like that,” Holly looked over the baby at Gail, “It’ll make her start crying.”

Bill nodded and looked behind his seat at Gail, “She’s right. I said that one night about you when you were a baby and after that you didn’t stop crying for a week.”

“Are you sure that wasn’t last week?” Steve leaned forward in the third seat.

Gail took a swing at him and Steve fall back in the seat to dodge it.

At the restaurant, Gail insisted on carrying the baby. Holly followed with the bottle. She caught up to Gail as they neared the restaurant and opened the door for her. Steve took over holding the door for Holly and his parents.

They were immediately seated and the baby carrier was put down on a high chair. “So Holly,” Steve started the conversation, “What are you plans after graduation?”

“College for sure,” Holly nodded.

“She was accepted to McGill,” Bill added, pride all in his voice even though Holly had only officially lived with them for a little over an hour.

Steve smiled and asked Holly, “Parlez-vous francais?”

Holly answered in near perfect French, but no one at the table got the full meaning of what she said. When she realized she was in monolingual company she explained, “I had a foster brother that was from Quebec and I’ve taken French every year in school since I can remember.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?” Gail asked with a smile.

Holly grinned, “I can’t juggle.”

“Ha,” Steve pointed at Holly, “You can communicate with people in another language, but I can entertain myself for two maybe three minutes.”

Holly laughed and Gail glared at her brother. Gail did not want Holly and Steve to get along that well.

“Have you given any more thought to where you might be going?” Elaine asked. “Obviously if you decided to stay in town, you can stay with us for as long as you would like.”

That thought made Gail internally happy. Holly staying with them for another four years and not leaving town….living right across the hallway…Gail tried to keep a smile down.

“I don’t know,” Holly inhaled, “I haven’t really thought about it much lately, but I do need to decide soon.”

“I have a buddy that went up to the police college in Quebec,” Steve picked up his water and took a sip, “If you want to go check out McGill, let me know and we can stay with him. Gail can come if you want to spend the whole trip listening to how we need to stop because she’s hungry and she has to pee.”

Gail rolled her eyes, but was glad Steve mentioned her because it made Holly look at her with a smile. The emotion in Holly’s eyes wasn’t one that Gail really recognized, but it made her all warm inside. She wasn’t good at reading people really, but she wanted to learn for Holly.

Dinner went wonderfully. Despite everything that went on during the day, Holly was happy. She ate great food with great people. And the baby didn’t even cry once.

When they got into the car to go home, Holly was starting to worry that the batteries were actually dead. Holly looked over at Gail, concerned, “Do you think that it’s okay?”

Gail looked down at the baby. She poked it in the chest and then looked at Holly, “No idea. Maybe if nothing happens tonight, we’ll tell the teacher.” She saw that Holly was still worried and assured her. “He can’t give you a bad grade if it’s his fault the baby died.”

“Could you be a little more tactful in your choice of words?” Elaine asked Gail, looking over her shoulder to the backseat.

Gail nodded resentfully and looked over at Holly, “I don’t know about you, but I’ve totally neglected my homework all weekend.”

Holly nodded slowly, “I have some calculus homework to get to.”

“Ouch,” Steve said from the far back seat.

“Are they AP courses?” Elaine asked Holly.

Holly answered as they pulled into the Peck driveway, “Yes. All of my courses are.”

“Good for you,” Elaine nodded in approval. “That’ll save you a lot of money in the long run.”

Gail rolled her eyes at her mother and opened her door as soon as the car stopped. She’d spent enough time with her family. It was time to spend time alone with Holly.

Everyone said goodbye to Steve who had just come over to hang out with the family and get some free food out of it. He drove back to his apartment without ever going back into the house.

Holly and Gail walked upstairs and both went straight into Gail’s room. The baby was put on the bed out the carrier and Holly retrieved her homework from the guest room – her room. Holly walked back into Gail’s room and paused in the doorway. Gail was laying on her stomach on the bed, looking at her laptop. She looked up when she saw that Holly didn’t come all the way into the room. She raised her eyebrows in question.

“I was just…” Holly paused to gather her words, “Do you want me to do my homework in m-my room? So you can have some privacy?”

Gail studied Holly. She scrunched her lips to the side, “If you want to. I mean, it’s cool if you want to hang out in here. You can still sleep in here.”

“We’ve just been spending a lot of time together,” Holly clutched her book to her chest, “I don’t want you to get sick of me or anything.” She added a smile at the end to hopefully make it seem like she was at least partially joking.

Gail saw right through it, “Get in here, nerd.”

Holly let out a genuine smile and stepped into the room. She’d never heard the term as an affectionate nickname before, but that was how she took it when Gail said it. Holly sat on the bed with her back against the headboard and opened her calculus book.

Gail turned on some quiet music and started to do her own homework. They got about fifteen minutes into their school work when the baby started crying.

“She’s not broken,” Gail looked over her shoulder at Holly.

Holly smiled and picked up the baby. She gave it the bottle and held it against her chest as it quieted down for its evening meal. Gail watched Holly’s hair fall from its place tucked behind her ear when she looked down at the baby. There was no denying that there was something absolutely stunning to Gail when she looked at Holly and she knew it went so much deeper than how beautiful Holly was.

Gail licked her lips and looked down at the bed on front of her. She wasn’t delusional. She knew what all the feelings were. She liked Holly. She _really_ liked Holly.

“Do you want me to take her?” Gail asked, looking over her shoulder again, “You have calculus to do.”

“It won’t take me that long,” Holly smiled gently. She rested the bottle against her shoulder to free up a hand to get the hair out of her face. She tucked it behind her ear and looked to Gail with a smile that Gail could only describe as heavenly.

Gail kept quiet and mentally shook her head at herself. She turned back to her computer and opened up another window. She checked her school email and then went to her social media account. She saw that she had a message. Andy was asking for the history assignment that was given in Friday because she was half-asleep in class. Gail messaged her back what the assignment was and that Andy owed her.

When the baby was done eating, Holly put her back down on the bed and resumed her work. Gail moved to sit back against the headboard and watched Holly’s pencil move with fluidity as Holly integrated functions and found the cosine of something. Everything was neat and in straight lines.

Holly noticed that Gail was watching, but she kept working until she was done. She looked up at Gail and asked, “Did I do okay?”

“Yeah,” Gail nodded sheepishly, “I mean, it’s cool how you can keep it all neat.”

“Thanks,” Holly smiled, putting away her homework. She yawned and stretched.

“I say we go to bed now and get up early tomorrow to hit the donut shop on the way to school,” Gail offered.

Holly nodded, “Sounds good. After my last class is over, I’ll take Sophie to the black box again.” Holly stood up and stretched. “I’m going to go change.”

“Do you need anything?” Gail asked, closing her laptop.

Holly thought it over then asked, “Sweatpants?”

“Top drawer,” Gail pointed to her dressed, “You should get the blue ones because they’re the softest.”

Holly retrieved the sweatpants and thanked Gail on her way out the door.

Once they were both settled in for bed, Gail turned off the lights. It didn’t take long for the excitement of the day to catch up with them and settle both girls into a deep sleep.

Sophie made up for her quiet day by having a restless night. She woke up six times by the time it was four in the morning. Gail felt like a zombie, walking Sophie around her bedroom. Holly didn’t mean to go back to sleep, but when she laid down to wait for Gail to put the baby down, she couldn’t stop herself.

Being the light sleeper that she was, when Gail actually laid down, Holly partially woke up. Gail had put Sophie in the carrier and put the carrier on the nightstand. She was rocking the carrier with her eyes closed.

Gail felt warmth pressed to her arm and found that Holly was crowding her side of the bed. She was too tired to move to the other side so she put her arm around Holly. Sophie was quiet so she turned completely toward Holly and tangled their legs together.

Holly hummed in her sleep and gently pressed her lips to Gail’s. The kiss jolted Gail awake, but it was over a second later. Holly tucked her head under Gail’s chin and muttered, “Now we’re even.”

Gail put her arms around Holly and felt Holly’s arm resting gently across her stomach.

It wasn’t really the kiss that was keeping Gail awake. It was the realization that Holly was actually awake enough to remember the kiss and didn’t freak out. She also didn’t make a big deal out of it. Holly just went on like everything was normal.

Gail used her hand on Holly’s back to pull her closer, then she kissed her forehead. There wasn’t anything her exhausted mind and body could do about it at the moment. She just closed her eyes and let sleep pull her down like a rock into a river.

The baby and the alarm went off at the same time in the morning. Holly already had the baby in her arms, changing it and trying to shut it up when Gail finally woke up completely. Gail turned on the shrieking alarms and turned to t the shrieking baby.

“I can’t find the bottle,” Holly told Gail over the crying of the baby.

Gail looked around the room. She leaned off of the bed and accidentally slid all the way off of the bed taking all the blankets with her. Falling off of the bed did help her find the bottle under her bed, next to the TV remote that she’d been missing for a few days. She pulled both of them out and handed the bottle to Holly who shoved it in the baby’s mouth.

Gail just spread out her blanket and laid down on it. She wasn’t ready to get up yet.

Holly got up and looked at herself in the mirror. She ran her free hand through her hair. It was a wild mess. She didn’t know how she slept the night before, but it looked like she dug up a grave and ran a marathon in a hurricane.

Holly drug a brush through her hair with one hand and when the baby was done, she put her down on the bed that didn’t have blankets on it. She peered over the bed and smiled at Gail who had fallen back asleep on the floor. Holly decided to let Gail sleep while she got ready in case the baby decided to start fussing again.

Gail started to come back to the waking world when she smelled coffee. There were quiet, bare footsteps on the floor walking from the doorway of the bedroom, toward her. The footsteps moved all the way around Gail. She heard something, what she guessed what a mug being set down on the nightstand. Then the footsteps went away, moving back out the door.

Gail stretched her back and slowly sat up. Most of her hair had fallen out of her ponytail in the night and the slide off of the bed didn’t help. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked up at the nightstand. She smiled when she saw the coffee on the nightstand. From the place on the floor, she carefully picked it up and brought it down to her level. It was already made up like she liked it.

Since her mom or dad had never brought coffee to her room, there was really only one person who could have brought it. Gail leaned against her bedframe and took a sip of the coffee. She peeked over the top of the bed to see if the baby was still in her room. Of course Sophie was already long gone.

Gail pushed up off of the floor and took a long sip of her coffee before setting it down. After a deep sigh about school and people (ew), she got to getting dressed.

When she finally made it to her hair she was wearing a large grey sweater and maroon skinny jeans. In her bathroom mirror, Gail dug the hair tie out of her hair and shook out her hair. It was a battle with a brush to get her hair untangled, but when she did, she just decided that with all that work, she was going to wear it down.

She looked herself over one last time before going to her closet. She was still tired from almost no sleep so she sat down in her closet to sort through which shoes she wanted to wear.

“Gail?” Holly’s voice wafted in from the doorway.

“Over here,” Gail didn’t look up from her shoes.

Holly walked toward the closet and saw the back of Gail sitting in the closet with shoes draped over her legs. “Your mom sent me to make sure you were up.”

“I’m up,” Gail rubbed her eyes. “I just can’t…” She couldn’t really even finish her thought she was so tired. “Shoes.”

Holly smiled and ran her teeth over her bottom lip before she pointed. “I think you should wear those black boots over there.”

Gail looked to where Holly was pointing and saw some rolled down brown combat boots. Gail looked at what she was wearing and made a light, “Oh yeah,” inhale of approval. She grabbed them and pulled them on.

She felt Holly’s hand gently rest on her head, then massage her scalp for a second. When Holly pulled her hand away, she asked, “Do you need help?”

Gail managed to turn around and offered her hands to Holly. Holly pulled Gail to her feet and well within her personal space. Gail could still feel Holly’s hands holding her own. She swallowed and looked into Holly’s eyes that were curious and unsure.

“You kissed me,” Gail whispered, watching Holly nervously bite her lip.

Holly silently nodded.

Gail’s eyes ran over Holly’s face before leaning forward again slowly, this time giving Holly the change to back out before their lips touched. However, Holly met her in the middle. Gail’s hands moved from Holly’s hands to Holly’s jaw and Holly’s hand had no other destination, but Gail’s hips.

Gail could feel that Holly was still unsure until she pulled Holly more firmly against herself. She could feel –

“Gail!” Elaine’s voice preceded her presence. Holly jumped away from Gail like a scared cat and sat on the bed, looking at the door.

Elaine appeared in the doorway and her eyes found her daughter, “Oh you’re up. I was scared that Holly was too nice to wake you up.” Elaine smiled at Holly and straightened out her work shirt. “I guess we’re already rubbing off on you.”

Elaine disappeared again, calling after herself, “You two need to get going or you’re going to be late for school.”

Gail wasn’t sure what to say. She kind of just flexed her fingers to their fullest extent and then raised her palms to the ceiling in a show of confusion and helplessness.

“School,” was Holly’s only panicked response before she ran out the door.  


	7. Chapter 7

There was no talking all the way in the car to school because the baby screamed the whole way there and five extra minutes in the parking lot after they got there.

When they finally got out of the car, Gail carried the baby and Holly carried the baby’s bag along with her backpack. Gail just took a pen and her phone because she was in a bad mood because the baby screamed for ten minutes and she didn’t get a chance to talk to Holly.

Then her least favorite person walked up to them with Andy and Termie right next to her.

“Hey,” Andy knew Gail enough to know that look of warning on her face. She didn’t say anything else to her. She smiled at Holly, “How was the baby this weekend?”

“Actually really easy,” Holly told Andy as positively as she could. She was still on edge because of the baby crying and she knew that the look on Gail’s face was not something to be trifled with.

“You should have come over this weekend,” Sue smiled charmingly at Holly, “The hot tub was great.”

Gail snapped and narrowed her eyes, “Why? Did you drop your baby in it?”

The smile dropped from Sue’s face. Andy poked Sue’s back, “C’mon we’re gonna be late.” She could see the tension brewing and knew that she had to get one of them away. She felt less likely to get hit if she took Sue.

Sue told Holly, “Um, I’ll text you,” before being led away by Andy.

Holly sighed softly and watched her walk away. She glanced awkwardly at Gail. She licked her lips, “I’m going to take Sophie to my first class.”

Gail agreed and silently walked Holly to her class. Before she stepped into the room, Holly turned to Gail, “I’m sorry about…freaking out.” Holly looked down at the generic tiles under their feet, “Everything is happening at once.”

Gail nodded, trying to keep a stiff upper lip. “I get it. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Holly quickly replied, “You don’t have to be sorry. It wasn’t…unwanted.” She offered Gail a tentative smile as the warning bell rang, “But things are complicated now.”

“I know,” Gail said although she hadn’t really thought about how complicated it was actually going to be with Holly moving in. She was so focused on getting to spend more time with her that she didn’t think how things would get murky with living across the hall from Holly. Gail gave Holly a genuine smile, “Don’t worry about it.”

Holly wished that Gail wouldn’t be so dismissive. She kissed Gail’s cheek. “I’m sorry.”

Gail wanted to grab Holly and hold her, telling her to shut up for a minute, but the late bell rang. She let Holly duck into class without saying anything.

But Gail thought about it all through class. She thought about how Holly was going to live with her for a few months. She thought about how Holly was possibly leaving in a few months. She thought about what her parents were going to say and what kind of rules they would put into place. And she knew that she couldn’t not tell them. They’re both cops. They’d figure it out.

Gail didn’t want to get hurt. She knew that if they got together and Holly still left, it would ruin her. Gail had been hurt before. Her break-up with Nick was not pretty. He said some hurtful things that were pretty spot on, but rude to say.

When Gail left her class, she met Holly in the main hallway so that she could take the baby. Gail walked Holly to class again, this time taking the quietest route. She couldn’t really string the words together that she wanted to say so she elected not to say anything.

Holly had been thinking about them as well because she had been so education focused for such a long time and she didn’t want to start making decisions based upon a relationship that would or wouldn’t last. She was a romantic and she poured a lot into her relationships.

“Is it weird?” Holly asked as they neared her class.

Gail didn’t have to hesitate when she said, “Yes.” Then she shrugged, “But we’ll figure it out.”

Holly was glad that Gail had some confidence in them. She stopped outside of the classroom and hugged Gail. Gail set the baby carrier on the floor and wrapped her arms around Holly’s waist, burying her face in Holly’s shoulder. Holly rested her head against Gail’s and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think that she was upsetting Gail in any way.

When the warning bell rang, Gail lifted her head and took a step back, “We should go get pizza at lunch.”

“Whatever you want,” Holly looked Gail over thoughtfully. She took in Gail’s face and all the emotions painted across it. She offered her a small smile and then ducked into her classroom.

When Gail was waiting for Holly in the main hallway, she looked down at the baby trying to find the right words to say to Holly. She wanted more than anything for Holly to be happy which was odd because for the longest time she only really cared about her own happiness.

Gail spotted Holly walking toward her, talking to Sue. She was holding her books to her chest while Sue held onto her backpack straps.

“Hey,” Chris walked up to Gail before Holly even got close to her. “We’re going to get pizza for lunch at Sal’s. Wanna go?”

Gail huffed. That’s where she was going to take Holly because it was private. She didn’t answer Chris because Dov and Andy walked over right before Holly and Sue arrived.

“Hey,” Andy said to the group, “Chris and Dov are going for pizza.” She turned to Sue, “Wanna go?”

Sue looked at Holly, “Didn’t you say that Gail wanted to go for pizza?”

Gail wanted to bang her head against a wall. Once again, her private plans with Holly were ambushed by a pack of teenagers who couldn’t seem to have fun without her.

Gail gave in and Holly just followed Gail. At least they got the car ride to the pizza place together. Gail opened the door for Holly to put the baby in and then went to the other side to help.  

After an awkward silence, Gail commented, “Someday, they’ll all have an original thought on their own.”

Holly smiled, “It’s fine. Really.” Holly looked out the window and rolled her neck. She had not settled in a nice sleeping position the night before and was really sore, “What grade do you think we’re going to get on this project?”

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t get an A,” Gail shrugged, “I mean Chris and Dov’s baby screams almost non-stop all the time and Andy and Sue are had a headless baby, that I’m pretty sure has fallen in the pool at least once. If we don’t get an A then everyone else is failing.”

“I think Jerry and Traci are doing okay,” Holly checked the side view mirror and sees Sue’s SUV right behind them.

“That’s because they make out until the baby starts crying,” Gail turned into the parking lot of the pizza place, “Then they spend ten hours picking out Jerry’s clothes and his pinkie rings.”

Holly chuckled, “He dresses nice.”

“He dresses so nice on a regular day that he’s going to have to wear a diamond encrusted tux to prom,” Gail pulled into a spot and turned off the car.

They walked into the pizza place and everyone decided to share two pizzas. They all sat at a long table with their fake babies. By then, they were used to the looks so no one worried much about it.

“After I turn this thing in,” Dov pointed to the baby, “I’m going to sleep for two days straight.”

Gail’s phone rang as the tired group of teens started sipping on their drinks. She saw that it was her mom and answered it, leaning on the table, “Hey mom.”

“What’s Holly’s favorite color?” her mom asked immediately.

“Um,” Gail realized that she didn’t know. She looked next to her at Holly, “What’s your favorite color?”

“I don’t know,” Holly shrugged, “Um, green or grey I guess.”

Gail relayed the information. Her mom asked to talk to Holly so Gail handed the phone over. Holly answered while all eyes on the table were on her. She noticed that and when Elaine started talking, Holly excused herself to take the call outside.

“Why didn’t we get breadsticks or something?” Gail looked up and down the table for something to eat, “I’m starving.” She kept a subtle eye on Holly though the windows.

“Why is your mom talking to Holly?” Andy asked, gesturing to the door Holly just walked out.

Gail shrugged, “I don’t know. Probably asking her what she wants for dinner or something. My mom likes Holly more than she likes Steve.” Gail looked up when the worker brought over the pizza. Gail decided to change the subject as she grabbed a slice of pizza, “Has anyone seen Traci and Jerry?”

“We ran into them at the mall,” Chris offered, “They said this project is easy and their baby is awesome.”

Gail looked out the window and saw Holly with her hand over her mouth. She could see the tears in her eyes. Gail immediately stood and walked away from the table, pizza and fake baby forgotten. When she stepped outside, Holly was hanging up.

“What happen?” Gail looked over Holly’s face to try to determine why she was crying.

Holly smiled through tears, “I never have to go back to that foster house again. All the other kids were moved.”  She slipped her arms around Gail’s neck. “Your mom has temporary custody of me until my birthday.” She pulled away and looked at Gail with tears running down her face, but a huge smile, “Thank you so much for stalking me.”

Gail chuckled and pulled Holly back into a hug. Gail was just so happy that Holly was happy. She hugged Holly tight and just reveled in the feel of Holly’s elated body pressing up again her own.

Holly pulled away and looked at Gail’s face, “Really though. Thank you so much. This wouldn’t have happened with you.”

Gail shrugged, “It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a huge deal,” Holly let her hands fall from Gail’s shoulders to her hand and she swung them gently between them.

Gail looked down at their hands and smiled bashfully, “Well, I like you so…I wanted to help.”

“I like you too,” Holly grinned. She swayed a little bit herself and then took a deep breath, “I think we should talk about…us when we get rid of the baby. It’ll uncomplicated things a little and we’ll really be able to…figure stuff out.”

“Yeah,” Gail agreed although she was hoping for a little speedier remedy to their stalemate. “That makes sense.”

Then Holly’s eyes got wide, “The baby? Where is she?”

“She’s inside,” Gail held onto Holly’s hands so that she couldn’t run inside, “And she’s fine.”

Holly looked through the window and saw that most of the group was looking out the window at them. “Oh.”

When Gail looked inside, Holly dropped her hands. Gail flipped off everyone inside and turned back to Holly, only to find her withdrawing into herself, “Are you okay?”

“It’s just…” Holly crossed her arms and gestured vaguely with her elbow toward the door, “I’m probably going to have to explain why I’m so happy and crying or whatever. And you’ll have to explain why we were holding hands.”

“I don’t have to explain anything to anyone,” Gail frowned.

“But they’ll ask,” Holly sighed softly.

“So?” Gail shrugged. “Sue got to hold your hands, why can’t I?”

Holly bit her lip, “Really?”

“Really what?” Gail asked, shoving her hands into her pockets.

“Just like that?” Holly asked, looking up at Gail through her eyelashes, “Just like that you accept that there’s something between us? No freaking out or panicking?”

“Do… you want me to?” Gail looked around.

Holly smiled, “No.” She looked at the ground and then back up at Gail, “I just sort of expected it.”

Gail grimaced playfully, “Well, that’s one thing you should probably learn about us Peck. We defy expectations and we’re not like everyone else.” She sensed that their talk was over and opened the door for Holly.

Holly kissed Gail’s cheek on the way into the restaurant. Gail smiled to herself. She could feel the happiness radiating off of Holly as she walked passed and it was enough to break her perpetual foul mood for as long as it took to walk back to the table.


	8. Chapter 8

Gail threw down an iron curtain to the questions that she and Holly started getting when they sat down. She shut down all questions or answered them with angry glares. Holly was sure it only served to make everyone more curious, but everyone stopped asking questions. She knew that eventually she was going to have to explain why she was always at Gail’s house.

On the way back to school, Holly explained those thoughts to Gail.

Gail nodded. That made sense.

“And your mom wants to go shopping,” Holly looked at Gail to see her reaction.

Gail groaned, “Do I have to go?”

Holly giggled and told Gail that her mom said she was going to say that. “And no. She said that you don’t have to go.”

Gail pulled into a parking spot and looked over at Holly, “Do you _want_ me to go?”

Holly bit her lip and didn’t want to force Gail to do something that she didn’t want to, but she actually really did want Gail to go with them.

The blonde knew what Holly was thinking and nodded as she took her keys out of the ignition, “I will go with you.” She opened her door and looked back at Holly, “But, I will complain until I get a smoothie.”

Holly got out and walked around the car to Gail, who was about to get the baby out of the backseat. “Gail,” Holly softly called.

Gail stood back up out of the car and Holly captured her in a hug. It was an embrace that coming from anyone else, would have made both girls uncomfortable. Gail turned her head down so that she could place her closed eyes on the curve of Holly’s neck, just to be close to her. There was something special about Holly and Gail knew it. She knew that her smile was precious and that her embraces were rare, but profound. It was just so easy to be with Holly.

“I don’t think I can ever thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me,” Holly took a step back, remembering that they were in the parking lot of their high school.

Gail looked at the ground and kicked at it with her boot, “It’s…no big deal.”

Holly knew that it was a big deal, at least to her. Her lips twitched into a small smile before she moved to the backseat to retrieve the baby.

In their economics class, the teacher talked about the difference between micro and macroeconomics. Everyone had switched seats so that they could sit by the person they were co-parenting with. Gail was behind Holly who was dutifully taking notes with the baby in her lap.

Gail sat in her chair, nothing on her desk, staring at the back of Holly’s head. She loved Holly’s hair. She just wanted to run her fingers through it or touch it. It was long and wavy, almost black and so beautiful. It might have been the lack of sleep over the past few days, but Gail was actually feeling really happy and Holly’s hair was just what she happened to be looking at.

Holly felt gently tugs on her hair and knew that Gail was playing with her hair. She smiled to herself and kept paying attention to that the teacher was saying.

By the end of the class, Holly’s hair was in a long braid that crossed the back of her head and rested gently on the front of her shoulder.

Holly turned to look at Gail, “Did you take any notes?”

Gail grinned, “You have pretty hair.”

Holly tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Being complimented was going to take some getting used to.

“You going to the black box?” Gail asked, standing and taking the baby carrier. When Holly nodded, Gail said, “I’ll come get you after class and we can meet my mom at the,” Gail made a fake gagging sound then finished her sentence, “mall.”

Holly touched Gail’s arm as they walked out of the room, “You don’t have to go.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with my mom,” Gail shook her head, “She’s nice now because you’re new. Once you live with us long enough, you’ll see the dragon.”

Holly didn’t quite believe Gail. She adjusted the baby in her arms as she walked, “I used to live with a dragon. Your mom is not bad at all.”

Gail didn’t have anything to say to that. Holly was right. Her mom was not as bad as a lot of other parents, especially Holly’s ex-foster parents. She licked her lips and changed the subject, “What colors are you thinking for the walls of the bathroom?”

“We don’t have to paint the bathroom,” Holly held the baby to her chest as they neared Gail’s class.

“It’s 1960’s psychedelic puke green in that bathroom,” Gail stopped at the door, “Will you really be able to live with that?”

“It’s green?” Holly asked. She hadn’t really actually gone into the bathroom. Usually she just ducked in the bedroom to get clothes before walking across the hall to Gail’s room without even noticing the bathroom.

“Think about paint colors,” Gail smiled and then stepped into her class.

Holly took the baby to the black box and sat on the couch thinking about her life as it was and how it could possibly change. She still hadn’t fully committed to a college or a relationship with Gail. She was a little nervous that Gail’s feelings would fade after a while. She didn’t want Gail to feel trapped or obligated to be with her. That was Holly’s biggest fear. People felt pity and then obligation.

Something about the way Elaine was acting, didn’t make her feel like she was an obligation. No one had ever been obliged to ask her what color she wanted to paint the bathroom or how she wanted to decorate her room. Elaine could have just put her in the room and fed her. But Elaine was treating her like part of the family and it was really nice. A first for Holly.

She quietly thought all the way though Gail’s last class, only being interrupted once by the baby. Gail came to get her, smiling as soon as she opened the door.

“Why are you so happy?” Holly couldn’t help, but smile as well. She stood up with the baby and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

Gail grabbed the carrier, “I am just glad to get out of here. We’re going to meet my mom at the mall if that’s okay.”

Holly nodded, “Sure.”

Gail opened the door for Holly and took the baby to put her in the car seat. “We should really get Sophie a change of clothes.”

“We’re only going to have her for a few more days,” Holly sat down in the car and looked out at Gail.

Gail shrugged, “It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give her back in a gross onesie.”

“I can wash it,” Holly offered.

Gail made a face, “Can’t we just buy new ones?”

“It would be nice to live on Planet Gail,” Holly looked Gail over.

Gail grinned. “It is nice.”

They drove to the mall without any crying. Together, Gail and Holly decided to take the baby out of the carrier because they didn’t want to swing the carrier into things. Gail carried the diaper bag and Holly carried the baby into the department store.

“As a warning,” Gail offered when they walked in, “You will end up with a lot more stuff than you planned to get.”

“I don’t think-” Holly started to argue when she spotted Elaine.

“No, you will,” Gail told her. “Just be prepared.” She saw her mom as well and walked Holly over to her.

They started in the linens department. Holly got new sheets, a blanket, a comforter, and two new pillows just by commenting that she loved the pattern on the comforter. Holly got a new jacket just by looking at it too closely and seven of the same shirt Gail made her try it on and Elaine told her she looked fabulous then proceeded to find it in seven different colors.

A few stores later, Elaine had a fancy new set of pot holders, a matching apron, and a gun cleaning kit. Gail had two new pairs of boots, a new dress, and a necklace. Holly had hardly said anything and had new jeans, shirts, jackets, and a pair of sneakers.

Elaine had to get to a dinner, but told Gail that she put some money in her account so they could keep shopping for anything else Holly needed. Then Elaine told them both that as weird as it sounded, she hired a baby sitter for their fake baby so Elaine took Sophie with her when she left the mall, along with all of Holly’s things that she promised to leave in Holly’s room.

As much as Gail bitched about going to the mall, she loved to shop and was, self-admittedly, really good at it. She dragged Holly into a shoe store and watched Holly walked around. When she asked Holly if she saw anything she liked, Holly replied negatively although Gail saw Holly pick up a pair of boots and look them over, checking the price before putting them back.

Gail was starting to see why her mom just started buying Holly things. Holly wasn’t going to say that she wanted anything, even if she did.

When they left the shoe store, Gail stopped just outside, “I think I left my phone in there. I’m gonna go grab it.” She handed Holly a ten and added, “Can you grab me a donut at that coffee place?” Gail pointed to the coffee shop just across the corridor.

Holly nodded and walked to the coffee shop.

Gail ducked back into the store, stealthily bought the boots in Holly’s size and then waited outside the coffee shop. She made sure to hide the shoe store bag in the midst of all her other purchases.

Again Holly came out of the coffee shop without anything for herself. She even tried to give the change back to Gail. Gail rolled her eyes and refused to take it back. When she peeked inside the bag she smiled, “You remembered what my favorite is.”

“You talk about that donut in your sleep,” Holly grinned.

Gail smiled back and took a bite of her donut. She offered a bite to Holly who declined. They walked through the mall and stopped in a small boutique store. Gail got a cocktail dress for Holly to try on, partially because she thought it would look good on her and she knew Holly needed something to wear to graduation, and partially because it was fairly short and there was nothing about Holly’s long, lean legs that Gail didn’t like.

“I think this is really tight,” Holly said from the inside of the dressing room.

Gail took the shoes she bought for Holly and slid them under the door, “Try those with it.”

Gail heard Holly pick up the shoe box and then there was silence. She listened intently and waited for Holly to say…anything really. When Gail heard a tiny sniffle, she pushed the door open, calling, “Holly?” before sticking her head in.

She saw Holly in the cocktail dress, sitting on the ground, crying into her hand with the boots across her lap. Gail was quick to sit down next to her, “What’s wrong? Are they the wrong color?”

Holly smiled despite her tears. She wiped her face, “They’re the perfect color.”

“Oh,” Gail quietly replied. She wasn’t sure what was happening then.

“I just…” Holly inhaled and then exhaled slowly to control her emotions, “I’ve never gotten this many pairs of new shoes before. Or clothes.” She looked at Gail, embarrassed. “It’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Gail put her hand on Holly’s arm and ran her hand down Holly’s arm to her hand. She ran her thumb over the backs of Holly’s fingers. She had no idea what to say. She had never really encountered a situation like the one she was in. She’s never met someone she wanted to protect as much as she wanted to protect Holly. She slipped her arms around Holly and Holly leaned into her.

Gail pressed her cheek to the top of Holly’s head and thought about all the things that Holly deserved, but never received. She deserved everything she wanted and all the love in the world. She deserved so much more than life had given to her.

Eventually Holly sat up and wiped her face, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Gail looked over Holly’s face, making sure that she was really okay.

Holly smiled softly and leaned forward, kissing a surprised Gail. When Holly pulled away, Gail just sat in place with her eyes closed. She slowly opened them to find Holly standing up. She unzipped the cocktail dress that she was wearing and pulled on her own clothes. Instead of putting on the new sneakers she got, she put on the boots Gail bought her.

Gail smiled upon seeing Holly wearing them. Holly looked at herself in the mirror. They looked good on her.

“Let’s go have dinner,” Gail stood up and stretched.

“Are you sure?” Holly asked, really unsure about spending _more_ money.

Gail took Holly’s hand in one hand and their purchases in the other, “The more money we spend, the less my dad will spend on garden gnomes that my mom makes him keep in the shed.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Is it weird that I kinda don’t want to give her back?” Holly looked down at the plastic baby that she was carrying into the school.

Gail nodded, “Yes. It’s very weird.”

Holly looked up at Gail, “C’mon. She’s cute.”

“She looks just like all the other babies,” Gail quirked an eyebrow at Holly as they walked toward their economics class with a drink in her hand. When Holly tilted her head, Gail caved, “Fine, she’s cute.”

In all honesty, Gail was going to miss Sophie because it was Holly’s excuse to sleep in her bed. Now that her bedroom was decorated and painted to her liking and there wasn’t a baby to take care of in the middle of the night anymore, Holly was going to have to move across the hall.

Gail shuffled into the economics classroom. Everyone in the room looked exhausted. There was coffee and energy drinks on every desk in the room. Andy looked like she was a second away from collapsing into a coma. Sue had the baby on her desk behind Andy. It looked like she was trying to make sure nothing looked wrong with the baby before she turned it in.

Dov and Chris were taking the baby hockey jersey off of their baby and folding it up. Traci and Jerry just sat contently, their desks moved next to each other. Jerry put his arm around the back of Traci’s chair and she rested her head on his shoulder.

Holly and Gail went to their seats. Holly yawned as she sat down and set the baby on the desk. She turned her head to the side, “Would it be wrong to go home and sleep until tomorrow?”

“That’s what I was going to do,” Gail rubbed her eyes. She used her index fingers to poke a pattern on Holly’s back. “Then I’m going to pay someone to bring me Mexican food.”

“Yum,” Holly leaned her head back, “Tell whoever is delivering it to just leave it outside my door.”

Gail moved her hands up to Holly’s neck and then slipped them under Holly’s hair gently massaging her hair, “Your hair freaks me out.”

“How?” Holly closed her eyes enjoying the feeling of Gail’s fingers in her hair.

“You have TV hair,” Gail continued her massage, “You didn’t do anything this morning, but take a shower and it looks awesome.”

When Gail took her hands out of Holly’s hair, her finger caught on a tiny tangle. Holly winced, “That was not TV hair.”

“Wuss,” Gail folded her arms on her desk.

Holly yelped and jumped a little in her seat. Gail wondered what happened until she saw Holly pull her phone out of her back pocket. She wiped the screen of her new phone off on her jeans. It was a neat surprise that Elaine left on her bed after Gail and Holly go back from their shopping sort-of date.

Holly looked next to her and tilted her head, “You don’t have to text me. I’m sitting right next to you.”

“You were busy,” Sue shrugged with a smile.

Holly ran a hand through her hair to get it out of her face. She didn’t notice Gail carefully watching the exchange from behind. She shrugged and told Sue, “I don’t know. I’ll probably sleep all weekend. Watch some movies.”

“Well if you want to hang out, let me know,” Sue patted her baby, “I swear I’m more fun when I’ve had eight consecutive hours of sleep. Except tomorrow morning. We have a game.”

“Ugh, I forgot about that,” Andy turned around in her seat, “I was going to sleep _all_ weekend.”

Sue smirked, “If you keep playing like you’re asleep, you can sleep on the bench.”

“We’re going camping next weekend,” Dov butted in. “All that peace and quiet.”

“You’re going to get eaten by a bear,” Gail quipped, rolling her eyes, but keeping her gaze on Holly.

When the teacher walked in with the empty baby cart, cheers sounded all around the room. He smiled, “I know, I know. You’re ready to have your weekends back.”

“We just want to take a nap,” Andy spoke up for the class.

He chuckled, “Well I’ll be giving you your project grades today so you can all lay your heads down until I call you.”

“Score,” Andy dropped her head on the desk.

“McNally and Tran,” the teacher called.

Andy groaned and stood up with the baby. Sue followed her to the front and looked nervously at the teacher as she handed the baby over to be plugged into the computer.

Gail poked Holly’s back, “We should go get some nachos after this.”

Holly turned around in her seat and smiled, “We just had lunch.”

“What did we have for lunch?” Gail asked with a frown.

“Nachos,” Holly reached up and put her hand on Gail’s forehead, “You really don’t remember?”

“Last night was a long night,” Gail rested her chin in her palm, “What are you doing this weekend?”

Holly moved her hand from Gail’s forehead to her cheek before dropping her hand, “I don’t know. I was going to see what you were going to do.”

“You don’t have a date with Sue?” Gail uttered almost inaudibly.

Holly tilted her head to the side. “Seriously?”

The blonde ducked her head, “Sorry.”

Holly couldn’t help, but lose a little bit of her indignation at being asked that question. She tucked some hair that had escaped Gail’s braid behind her ear. “I know we haven’t like defined what this is or whatever, but it is something and I like it, you know?”

“It was stupid,” Gail muttered.

“Stewart and Peck,” the teacher called.

Sue and Andy were sitting down as they stood. “How’d you do?” Holly asked the two of them.

Sue looked a little traumatized and Andy had already fallen asleep. “We got a B. The baby was technically dead for an hour and a half while I was soldering it back together, but we didn’t fail because he couldn’t tell which wires I had to repair.”

Gail and Holly moved to the front of the class and Holly handed the baby over to the teacher.

When the baby was plugged into the computer the teacher looked surprised. He looked at them, “This is really impressive. I think this is the best score I’ve ever seen for this type of eBaby.”

Holly beamed. Best score ever meant a good grade for the project. She wasn’t sure what they were going to get.

The teacher looked at Holly and pointed to Gail, “Did she help at all?”

Holly immediately nodded, “She was great. We weren’t apart for more than a few minutes the entire time we had the baby. It was so easy with her.” Holly threw a smile to Gail who was beaming at Holly’s description of their time together.

The teacher looked skeptically between the two and then finally nodded, “Alright then. A+.”

Holly smiled brightly, “Thank you Mr. Shaw.” She turned and walked to her desk.

Gail followed dumbly. She sat down at her desk and looked up at the ceiling, “This is what an A+ feels like?”

“Is it your first one?” Holly chuckled.

“You two got an A+?” Sue looked like her eyes were about to bug out.

Gail leveled her chin and threw Sue a fake smile, “I guess it pays to not launch your baby across the yard.”

Holly turned around in her desk and just looked at Gail. Gail immediately lowered her chin and mumbled, “Sorry.” Gail looked up at Holly though her eyelashes and saw that Holly wasn’t really mad at her. She even found herself the recipient of an amused smile, “So what are you doing after this?”

“Elaine is picking me up,” Holly grinned.

Gail narrowed her eyes, “Her name is Mom. Or the more formal Staff Inspector Mom.” Gail rested her chin in her palm, “Are you going to her office?”

Holly nodded, “We’re just going to talk about some things. My deadlines for picking a college are coming up soon.”

That immediately put a damper on Gail’s mood. She knew that she definitely wanted what was best for Holly and she wanted Holly to be happy. But she also did not want Holly to leave the province. She didn’t really ever want her to leave the Peck house until they could both go together.

Holly sensed Gail’s change in mood. She wanted to reassure Gail that it would be okay no matter where she ended up, but she wasn’t sure it really would be, so she stayed silent.

“You haven’t committed yet?” Sue butted into the conversation, which for the first time Gail was thankful.

“I’m probably going to on Monday,” Holly told her.

Sue smiled, “Well,” she pulled off her hoodie and showed Holly her shirt that proudly stated in white letters on the red shirt _McGill Women’s Soccer_. “If you decide to go to Montreal, you’ll have a friend there.”

“I thought you wanted to go to Regina,” Holly furrowed her brow.

Sue did look a little disappointed, “I did, but I got a full ride to play soccer at McGill. I still get to study Electrical Engineering and maybe I’ll get to use some of the French that I’ve been taking for ten years. And you know, my dad went there so… go Martlets.”

“Congratulations,” Gail added. There was no spite in her voice. She felt like Sue had some pressures that Gail could definitely sympathize with.

Sue found Gail’s eyes and nodded civilly, “Thanks.” Sue swallowed, “Maybe um, the three of us and we can drag Andy along can go to lunch or something tomorrow.” Sue glanced at Andy, “If she ever wakes up from her coma.”

Holly looked at Gail who nodded, “Yeah. Sounds fun. But it has to be somewhere that serves breakfast all day because I’m not waking up until noon.”

“Deal,” Sue nodded.

The bell rang and Holly walked Gail to her next class, “I guess I’ll see you at the police station.”

“Yeah,” Gail nodded. “Have fun. Try not to jump off of the balcony after talking to my mom.”

Holly kissed Gail’s cheek, “I’m sure that won’t be the case. Have fun in class.”

Gail was too tired to pay attention in class so she stared out the window until her last class was over. She got a coffee on the way to the police headquarters. When she walked in, the desk sergeant said hi to her. Then every officer and white shirt that saw greeted her. One of the white shirts even addressed her as Baby Officer Peck.

The door to her mom’s office was open so Gail stepped into the doorway. She found her mom doing paperwork at her desk. Holly was nowhere to be found.

 “Where’s Holly?” Gail asked, leaning on the doorway of her mom’s office.

Elaine used her pen to point, “They’re having a continuing education class down the hall and she wanted to go sit in.”

Gail started to leave, but her mother stopped her, “Hold on. Come in. Shut the door and have a seat.”

Gail sighed. She thought she was just coming to pick up Holly. After the door was closed, she slumped back in the chair.

“You know the three Peck Family Rules,” Elaine put her pen down and took off her glasses, looking across the desk at her daughter. “I want to talk to you about the first one.”

“Always remember who you are?” Gail asked.

Elaine nodded, “And I want to make a special addendum just for you to that rule.” Elaine tapped her fingers on the desk, “Holly is a terrible liar. It’s an endearing quality. I noticed some things going on between the two of you and Holly confirmed that there was something, but you two haven’t quite decided that to call it.”

Gail felt her heart start hammering. This was not something that she ever really planned to tell her mom. She hadn’t even though about it. She swallowed and sat up a little straighter in her chair.

“This doesn’t change anything,” Elaine immediately assuaged her daughter’s worries, “Holly will continue to live with us until she wants to leave. However, all sleepovers will take place in the common areas of the house.”

Gail frowned deeply. She was actually going to try to sneak into Holly’s room that night so they could cuddle.

Elaine smiled briefly. She looked down at her desk before adding, “I also want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that Holly does decide to leave Toronto. She doesn’t have a lot of good memories here and she’s gotten into some really prestigious universities.” She paused to see Gail’s reaction. She could see Gail frown a little deeper. “She hasn’t made any decisions yet. She wants to talk to you about and talk to a few more of her friends, which is understandable.”

Gail leaned back in her chair and looked out the window behind her mom’s desk, not wanting to think about Holly leaving, “What’s the addendum to the rule?”

“Oh yes,” Elaine stood from her desk and walked out it to stand in front of Gail, “Always remember who you are. You’re a Peck. You’re a strong woman. You’re very intelligent. But also be true to yourself. If Holly makes you happy then I’m happy. If something happens with Holly and some boy makes you happy, then I’m happy. I want you to be true to yourself.”

Gail never really thought of her sexuality in concrete terms, but it was nice to know that her mom supported her no matter what. “Thanks.”

There was a knock on the door and when Elaine and Gail turned toward it, they found Holly looking in the window. Elaine smiled and motioned her in.

“Am I interrupting?” Holly asked after she opened the door.

“Of course not,” Elaine told her, leaning back on her desk. “But now that you’re both here I want to go over the rules one more time. No sleepovers in your bedrooms. When both of you are in the bedroom, the door stays open.” Holly became mortified when Elaine turned her eyes on her, “Holly, no matter what happens between you and Gail, you will always have a place to stay with us.” Elaine’s eyes flickered to her daughter, “Gail, I’m sure your father will want to talk to you later.”

Both girls nodded silently, Holly looking like a deer in headlights and Gail trying to look as disaffected as possible.

“You can leave now,” Elaine smiled at the girls’ silence, “I’d also like to see you both at dinner sometime this weekend.”

Holly was the first to the door, shuffling the pamphlets and handouts around in her hand so she could open the door.

“What are those?” Gail asked following Holly out.

“Just some stuff from the seminar I went to,” Holly offered the largest flyer to Gail.

Gail looked it over, “Introduction to Crime Scene Preservation.” She quirked an eyebrow, “I guess for Christmas, I’m getting you a list of law enforcement seminars.”

Holly grinned and snatched the flyer back, “It was interesting.”

They reached the outside door and Gail held it open for Holly, “You’re a nerd.” She paused as Holly walked past her, “A hot nerd.”


	10. Chapter 10

“No Holly-Hol-Holly,” Gail bounced up and down on the couch, “Turn around. There’s a – cover there’s cover over there.”

“What does the red mean?” Holly asked, her eyes frantically darting all over the screen. “Is that blood?”

“Yeah it’s yours. You’re getting shot,” Gail waved her hand at the screen trying to get Holly to turn around, “Why are you looking at the sky?”

“That rocket is taking off,” Holly squealed and tried to run away from the blood on the screen.

Gail huffed, “Don’t worry about the rocket. It’s in the background. You’re about to….die.” She flopped back onto the couch. “You died.”

Holly put the controller in Gail’s lap, “I don’t understand why the rocket was taking off.”

“It was just…something to put in the background,” Gail shrugged. She let out a faint smile, “You’re awful at this.”

“I know,” Holly laid down on her side of the couch and stretched her neck to look out the window. It still looked really cold outside. It was overcast and probably drizzling. The perfect day to meet their friends at the coffee shop near their school in a little while. “You know what I am good at?”

Gail’s eyes widened and she tried to hide a blush on her cheeks so she busied herself with plugging in the controller to charge.

“I was going to say poker, but apparently you’re thinking of something else,” Holly rolled on her side so she could see Gail better.

The blonde shook her head, “I wasn’t.” Of course she didn’t really even convince herself. Gail swallowed, “I, um…It’s just that we haven’t….we don’t….I mean….” Gail rubbed her eyes and finally looked to Holly, “Are you my girlfriend? Are we still like flirting or whatever? Do I have to ask you to be my girlfriend?”

“You don’t…have to ask,” Holly sat up, “I mean not if you don’t want to.”

“I want you to be,” Gail walked back to the couch and sat down. “We didn’t really talk after that mortifying meeting we had with my mother. But I think…maybe…” Gail shook her head, “It’s stupid –it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Holly used her foot to nudge Gail’s legs, “Tell me what you want to say. Then I’ll say yes I’d love to be your girlfriend.”

Gail ducked her head and grinned, “Will you be my girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Holly beamed, “I’d love to be your girlfriend.”

Gail took an exaggerated deep breath and then looked over at Holly, “Now that that’s over I think we should try playing a sports video game. I think you might be okay at hockey.”

The brunette grabbed her controller, “You’re not stopping until you find something I’m good at are you.”

“No,” Gail pulled her controller to herself and leaned forward because the charging cord wasn’t long enough for her to sit back, “And I really hope you’re good at sports games because we’ve already been through four categories of games. We may have to resort to video backgammon.”

“Oh I’m good at backgammon,” Holly grinned.

“Of course you are nerd,” Gail looked over at Holly after she started the game. She saw Holly smile and decided that since Holly was now officially her girlfriend, she could lean over and kiss her. It was pretty much the best feeling she could think of, kissing Holly without having to have a reason.

Holly had similar thoughts as the game announced itself. She didn’t need to make it official or put a label on it, but Gail seemed to need it and it was okay with Holly if Gail kept kissing her like that.

They played video games until Bill got home. He asked Gail to come with him and after a panicked exchange with Holly, Gail told Holly to take the car and go to the coffee shop without her. She would get her dad to bring her when they were done. Holly went upstairs to change, leaving Gail no buffer for whatever kind of talk that he was going to have with her.

They got their coats and went into the backyard. Bill led them to the bench swing that her mom insisted on getting, but never actually used. It was painted white and stood near the house, overlooking the yard. The striped awning over it shielded them from the slight precipitation. Gail actually kind of liked sitting there while it was drizzling. She wondered if Holly would like it too.

Bill was quiet for a long while. Long enough for Gail to get nervous. She had no idea what her dad was going to say.

Finally he took a deep breath and opened his mouth, “This is the same talk I gave your brother, just slightly modified,” Bill put his arm on the back of the bench. “Always hold the door open for her. I’m sorry always sounds better with flowers. Physical intimacy is a privilege that only she can give you. You’re in charge of your body. She is in charge of hers. Jewelry is required for all anniversaries. There’s no excuse in forgetting an anniversary. Bring her mom flowers,” Bill paused, “I guess that doesn’t apply to Holly, but if you date anyone after Holly, remember that. Be honest with her. When she’s on her period bring her dinner and her favorite movie. Buying tampons doesn’t make you any less of a man.”

Gail laughed. She leaned into her dad, “Dad.”

He chuckled, “I guess in your case, buy twice as many.” He put his arm around Gail and continued, “Just saying that you love her doesn’t mean anything if you don’t show her. Hold her hand in public. Do something romantic for her at least once a month – at the very least. She puts up with you so she deserves it.”

 Gail playfully bumped her shoulder with her dad’s.

“If she looks nice, tell her. If she tells a funny joke, laugh. Jealousy never looks good on anyone. If you don’t trust her with other people, either you’re not treating her well and you know it or she’s not the one.” He looked over at Gail, “Always remember who you are. You’re a Peck which makes you stubborn. Remember that sometimes you are wrong. Then refer to the line I gave you about flowers.”

Gail knew that this was good advice that she was getting. She was still young and had only had a few relationships that turned out to be a complete sham because she was completely gay. At least for Holly.

Bill continued, “Work harder than anyone else. Work harder than anyone else at making whoever you date feel like they’re the greatest person in the world. If you really love them, it won’t feel like work.”

Then he patted her shoulder, “Don’t screw up. Try not to screw up, but know that eventually you will. Forgive yourself. If she loves you, she’ll forgive you too. Also, flowers.”

They sat in silence for a while. Gail bit the inside of her cheek before asking, “Did you really give this speech to Steve?”

Bill nodded, “And just so you know, I think you’re taking it more seriously than he did.”

“That’s a first,” Gail leaned more into her dad. After watching the precipitation for a moment Gail added, “I like Holly.”

“I like Holly too,” Bill rubbed Gail’s shoulder, “She’s a good person.” He looked up at the sky, “Your mom wanted me to talk to you about the possibility of Holly leaving as well.”

Gail shook her head and pushed herself farther into her dad’s embrace, “Can we not talk about that?”

“You don’t have to talk about it with me,” he told her, “But you have to talk about it with her.”

Gail sat with her dad for a few more minutes before asking if he could take her to the coffee shop. She arrived less than ten minutes later. Her dad had to stop across the lot because it was full so Gail jogged through the parking lot and the rain toward the warm lights inside.

At the glass front door, she looked in and saw Holly sitting at a table with Sue. Holly laughed and Sue smiled, looking down at her coffee, and shaking her head. Sue was wearing a red McGill sweatshirt that made Gail freeze for a beat before opening the door.

Gail opened the door and stepped in, finding the noises changing instantaneously from a rain battered city to the murmurings of a small crowd and the hissing of an espresso machine.

Sue was the first one to spot Gail. She smiled and stood up from the beat up wooden table. Sue picked up her empty mug and asked Gail, “Still drink a vanilla latte?”

Gail nodded as she stood off her coat. Sue walked off to get her coffee, leaving Holly to greet Gail with a smile and a kiss.

“Where’s McNally?” Gail asked, seeing that there were only two chairs at the table.

Holly grabbed another chair from an empty table and put it close to her own, “She went home to take a nap after the soccer game and Sue couldn’t wake her up.”

Gail sat down and looked over at Sue who was chatting with the barista. They both laughed and the barista stopped what she was doing to talk for a moment.

“How was your talk with your dad?” Holly pulled Gail’s attention back to her.

Gail ran her teeth over her bottom lip, “It was a dad talk. He laid down the Peckspecations he has for me now that I’m dating a girl.”

“Oh yeah?” the brunette put her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm, “Peckspectations like what?”

“Be respectful and buy you flowers when I’m wrong,” Gail smirked, “Good thing I’m never wrong.”

Holly rolled her eyes and looked at Gail incredulously.

After a moment, Gail stood up. She went to the counter and bought a pastry. The returned to the table just as Sue brought the drinks back.

Gail sat down and watched Sue put her drink down. She thanked Sue and then slid the pastry in front of Holly, “It has flour in it.”

Holly laughed. “I’m not sure that counts.”

“It’s a blueberry scone,” Gail picked up her coffee and looked into it.

“Then it definitely counts,” Holly pulled out her pastry and took a bite.

Sue nodded in a greeting to Gail and put her hand around her coffee, “We were just talking about prom. Do you want to go in with me, Andy, Chris, Denise, and Dov on a limo or are you getting one on your own?”

“Oh my god, Denise is coming?” Gail rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, “I thought Chris was finally rid of her after their last blowout.”

Sue scrunched up her nose, “Apparently we’re not getting rid of her that easily.”

“I’ll walk before I sit in a limo with her for two minutes,” Gail shook her head and looked outside. She looked back at Sue, “Are you sure it’s not some random Denise? Like a Denise that goes to a school across town and you know…has half a brain?”

Sue chuckled, “Unfortunately I saw them together. It was gross. Her face makes me want to vomit.”

“Who are you two talking about?” Holly blinked, looking between Gail and Sue.

“ _Denise_ ,” Gail and Sue said together. They even said her name with the same disgusted inflection.

“I’m so glad you said her name again because that absolutely reminded me that I met Denise before,” Holly huffed and picked up her scone. She took a bite while Gail and Sue looked at her amused.

“She’s just Chris’s awful ex who is now his awful girlfriend,” Sue shrugged.

Gail added, “She’s the scourge of the earth.” Gail looked at Holly and made sure she was looking when she stole part of the scone.

Holly just shook her head with a small smile. She was wondering how long it was going to take Gail to steal some of her apology scone. To her credit, Gail held out longer than Holly thought she would.

“So what have you two been up to on this morbidly depressing weekend?” Sue sighed, looking outside.

Holly knew that her ex was a sun worshiper. Sue loved to be outside. Hiking, biking, playing sports, skiing, pretty much anything that involved being outside and physically exerting herself, Sue loved all of it.

“Well I tried to teach Holly how to play videos games,” Gail rested the ankle of her right foot on her left knee, “I guess we’ll go to the mall after this to look for something to wear to prom.”

Holly blinked. She didn’t remember actually being asked to prom. Holly raised her eyebrows at Gail. Gail smirked and drummed her fingers on the table. It was obvious she wasn’t going to get the actual question in front of Sue, but it seemed that a shopping trip to the mall was what she was going to get.

“Wow, you two have fun with that,” Sue uttered like she was glad she didn’t have to go, “I think I’m going to the climbing gym or something.”

“What about your scholarship?” Holly pointed out.

“Well I won’t tell them I’m endangering my physical wellbeing if you don’t,” Sue grinned. She knew that what she had talked about with Holly was heavy and she needed to keep things light. She was probably going to leave soon to give Gail and Holly some time to talk.

She only stayed a few more minutes then excused herself. Gail drug a less than enthusiastic Holly to the mall down the street. Before they got out of the car, Gail looked hard at her steering wheel, “Um, I probably should have asked and I mean, if you don’t want to go with me, that’s cool. Not that I don’t want to go or anything. I just-”

“Would you go to the prom with me?” Holly asked, interrupting Gail’s semi-panicked ramblings.

Gail smiled and looked to her right at Holly. She pretended to think about it before opening her door, “I’ll think about it.” She got out of the car and walked off, leaving Holly to sit in the car gaping, though not completely surprised.


	11. Chapter 11

Prom dress shopping didn’t take nearly as long as either girl thought. It turned out that their tastes were simple. While Gail’s simple was loud and red, Holly’s was understated and went perfectly with red.

Gail insisted on going out to lunch. She could tell that Holly was being skittish. She was trying not to talk about any kind of future, not even what was going to happen next week. Gail pretty much knew what Holly was avoiding and she knew that they couldn’t avoid it for very much longer.

Gail drummed her fingers on the table that was in a restaurant in the mall, and asked, “You’ve been dreaming of going to McGill ever since your little nerd heart could read, haven’t you?”

Holly looked down at the table and smiled. She looked cautiously up at Gail and nodded. “I have.”

“Then why haven’t you told them you’re coming?” Gail asked, holding Holly's eyes.

Holly bit her lip. Her eyes graced the ceiling as tears fought to break out past her lashes. “For the first time ever, I have a reason to stay.”

Gail couldn’t help, but get misty at the look at Holly’s face. She knew that Holly was one in a million. Her situation had sent so many people into a life of crime or poverty, but Holly was poised for greatness. She had never had a family or a permanent place to call home. Gail hoped that she meant as much to Holly as Holly did to her.

Gail cleared her throat and stood up out of the booth. She slid in next to Holly and put her arms around her girlfriend. “You have to go. This is it. This is everything you’ve been working for. And I’ll always be here. You can come back during winter and summer breaks. I’ll go up there for spring break. But you have to go. Even if sometimes you don’t want to go or I don’t want you to go. This started before me.”

Tears were flowing down Holly’s face. The waiter came over to the table only to walk away knowing that then wasn’t the time to get their orders. Holly rested her heels on the edge of the seat and held onto her knees while she leaned into Gail, “It’s not fair.”

“Yeah, I know,” Gail kissed Holly’s head. She knew that Holly was torn. She also knew that after undergraduate, Holly may stay at McGill and that would mean more years away from Toronto where Gail was probably going to spend her whole life. With her half-assed grades, there would be no way that Gail would get into McGill, but she hoped that maybe her parents would support her taking a year between high school and college to go to Montreal. Maybe she could go to a smaller college in Montreal. She could probably get into Concordia if she really tried her last year.

Holly sniffled herself back together and wiped her eyes. “That doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t have fun now though.”

“Of course,” Gail agreed. She broke away from Holly and moved back to her side of the booth, “So, for prom I was thinking limo and dinner at Luigi's.”

Discussing prom plans took Holly's mind off of leaving for a little while. She agreed to everything Gail wanted because she wasn't emotionally in a place to haggle. Gail figured out that Holly wasn't into it so she changed the subject again. The waiter came back and took their orders. They ate quietly, talking of nothing of substance.

When they left the restaurant, they held hands, walking slowly. Gail watched Holly carefully. She saw her eyes drift aimlessly from store to store. When Holly's eyes stopped on one store, Gail pulled her into it, hoping that a little retail therapy would help – even if it was retail therapy in a bookstore. Holly resisted, but only for a moment. She smiled when they walked in and Gail let go of her, setting her free to look around.

Holly thumbed through some medical reference manuals, sending Gail toward the other side of the store for something less cerebral. Gail read through some comic books before deciding to find her companion. She found Holly, pulling a book out of the shelf, “You find something good?”

A light smile crossed Holly's face, “I love this book. I've read it seven times.”

“So you already have it?” Gail raised an eyebrow.

“I checked it out from the library,” Holly started to slide the book back onto the shelf.

Gail grabbed the book before she could, “Why didn't you just buy it?” Gail saw that the book in her hand was a used copy. She put it back and looked at Holly, “If you read it so much.”

“I – I never had anywhere to put it,” Holly finally realized her reluctance to buy books before. She never had anywhere to put them. Sometimes she didn't even had a bed to call her own, much less a bookshelf.

Gail reached back toward the shelf and grabbed a brand new copy of the book that Holly loved, “Well, now you do.” She walked straight to the checkout counter before Holly could protest.

The bookstore was their last stop before heading home. They parted ways in the hallway so they could hang up their prom dresses. Gail wanted to see if Holly wanted something to eat when she stopped in the doorway of Holly's room. Her girlfriend was looking at the book that she had gotten. It was sitting by itself on her dresser. Gail knew that it was another important thing for Holly. She had her own space now. She had a safe place to keep her things. No one was going to steal her belongings. No one was going to throw them away. She didn't have to be able to fit everything she owned in a backpack.

Gail pivoted backwards out of the room before she was seen and pressed her back to the wall. The sheer amount of feelings that she had for Holly was almost completely overwhelming. Holly deserved so much more than what life had given her. She deserved the college of her dreams and a devoted girlfriend who would support her like no one else had.

She got an idea and texted her mom before appearing in the doorway again. “So, I'm already bored.” She flopped down on Holly's bed and looked at her girlfriend.

Holly turned around. She put her hands on her hips, “I have to get online and accept with McGill, then we can do whatever we want.”

Gail smirked wickedly, “Whatever I want?”

Holly stood at the foot of the bed. She quirked an eyebrow wondering what it was that Gail wanted to do.

Half an hour later, they were at the paintball field with all of their friends. Gail was assembling Steve's paintball gun for Holly to use when Holly walked over to the wooden picnic table everyone was gathered around. She was holding up some camouflaged pants that were vastly too big for her.

“Do you have a belt?” Holly asked.

Gail started rooting around in Steve's bag and asked, “Where did you get those?”

“They're Nick's,” Holly answered, adjusting her jersey shorts under the pants. “He said that I should probably protect my legs better.”

Gail took out a plastic buckled belt out of Steve's bag and handed it to Holly, “He just wants to ruin the view for me.”

Holly rolled her eyes, but kissed Gail in thanks. She held up the pants while Gail looped the belt through them. The belt only tightened so much, but held up around Holly's hips perfectly adequately.

“Holly!”

Holly turned around and saw Sue walking toward her with a smile on her face. When she got close enough, she tossed Holly a red shirt. “Nick just told me the news.”

Gail watched Holly unfurl the shirt and look it over. The big white letters spelled out McGill. Gail felt like she'd been hit in the face. She completely forgot that Sue was going to McGill as well. It's not like she could change anything. Holly already accepted and she wouldn't have wanted Holly to not go because she was jealous. It just made Gail a little uneasy.

“Thanks,” Holly accepted a brief and friendly hug from Sue.

“Have you decided where to live?” Sue asked, adjusting her black tactical pants.

Holly shrugged. “The dorms I guess.”

Sue shook her head and waved off that idea, “Those are so expensive and you have to live with strangers that you don't even get into like, interview or anything first.”

Gail stepped up to stand next to Holly, a paintball gun fully assembled and pointing in the general area of Sue's feet. “Do you have somewhere to live?” Gail asked Sue.

Sue shook her head, “Not yet. I'm going up there the week after graduation to find somewhere.”

Gail knew that she was going to regret what she was about to say, but she also knew that knowing Holly had someone she could count on across the country would allow her to sleep better at night, “Why don't you two find a place together?”

Holly turned to look at Gail, completely surprised. Sue was in quite a state of shock herself, completely frozen with her hands in her pockets.

“You know,” Gail added, “A nice _two bedroom_ apartment or something.”

A smile wafted onto Holly's face. That sounded more like her Gail. Holly turned to look at Sue, “What do you think?”

“Awesome,” Sue grinned. “It'll save a lot of time and we can share a moving truck.”

“Do you think your brother's friend would let us stay with him?” Holly turned back to Gail, gently taking her hand. She had been noticing how tense Gail was when Sue was even brought up. She couldn't imagine what suggesting that they live together took.

Gail nodded. Then she asked, “We?”

“Yeah,” Holly nodded, “I was going to ask you to come. Unless you don't want to.”

Gail immediately nodded. She had to make sure that the apartment Holly and Sue found had enough space between the bedrooms and that the bathrooms that were far apart so that there was a minimized chance of accidentally seeing each other naked.

“Are we playing or what?” Nick asked the entire group that was more chatting amongst themselves than getting ready.

Andy threw an empty hopper at him, “Keep your pants on.”

Nick tossed the hopper back, “I just wanted to get started before it rains.”

Dividing into teams consisted of a lot of games of rock-paper-scissors, a few coin tosses, and a silent protest. Gail grumbled about not being on Holly's team all the way to her team's base.

“So are you two a thing now?” Traci asked, sliding up next to Gail.

Gail nodded, not hesitating for a second. She kicked at the grass under her boots. She paused before asking Traci, “Where's Jerry going after graduation?”

“University of Victoria,” Traci answered, taking the plug out of her gun and lowering her mask.

Gail put her mask down, “Are you going up there too?”

Traci nodded, “We picked it together because it was somewhere we both wanted to go. He's going to go up there in a few months and I'll follow him up next year.”

The blonde bit her lip behind her mask. She had a lot of life changing decisions to make in the next few months and she felt so underqualified to make any decisions. Sometimes she questioned her parents' and the government's decision to give her a driver's license. She usually shouldn't be allowed to order food on her own. How was she going to make good life choices when she had a hard time deciding between donuts at the bakery?

The whistle blew and the teams started making a run, taking their positions and posts. Gail found a nice bunker and then pulled a candy bar out of her back pocket. She laid down on her back and stared up into the sky, thinking about her future.

The first person that found her was Chloe. Chloe had her gun pointed at Gail before she saw the state the Gail was in, “Are you okay?”

Gail swung her gun up and shot Chloe in the chest with a mouthful of candy bar, “Yeah.”

Chloe gaped at Gail's shot and then stomped off of the paintball field. Gail turned her gaze back up to the cloudy sky.

Gail felt a shot in her boot and looked down to see that her boot was no bright orange. Then her eyes turned to the person who shot her. She let her head drop back down onto the ground, “You're sleeping on the couch.”

Holly chuckled, “I have my own bed.” She moved toward Gail and laid down next to her, “What's happening in the sky?”

“Grey clouds,” Gail offered Holly half of her candy bar.

Holly took it and slid the candy under her mask to take a bite, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Gail lulled her head over toward Holly. “I was just thinking.” She paused, looking at Holly's eyes through the plastic of their masks, “If they had all this magic to change people into animals and heal wounds and stuff, why did Harry Potter still wear glasses? Why didn't he just make his eyes so that he could see?”

“Some people like wearing glasses,” Holly's smile was evident.

“Yeah, but not everyone is as hot as you in them,” Gail poked Holly's stomach.

“Hey,” Andy called, happening upon them, “You got shot, Peck. You're out.”

Holly hopped up and helped Gail up, giving her, her candy bar back. Gail put her plug in the end of her gun and rested it on her shoulder. Gail felt Holly grab onto the back of her pants and crouch down.

“Are you using me as a human shield?” Gail asked, taking a bite of her candy.

“If I say yes, are you going to be mad at me?” Holly looked over Gail's shoulder.

Gail rolled her eyes, but smile, “I'd be mad at you if you didn't.”

Holly's hand disappeared from the back of her pants and Holly lifted her mask for a brief moment to kiss the side of Gail's head before running back into the fray.

Gail watched Holly run off and smiled. She could feel the dopey smile on her face, but didn't wipe it away. Holly made her happy and she wanted to make Holly happy. She sauntered off toward the snack bar and then sat on the bench to finish watching the game.

It had started raining in the middle of their last match. The light sprinkle turned into a downpour. Everyone was having trouble seeing through their masks and friendly fire became a problem. Finally, Holly and Nick closed out the match, capturing the flag.

Gail was waiting for Holly under the raised tailgate of her car. Holly ran through the pouring rain and ran right into Gail. Gail laughed, holding her soaking wet girlfriend in her arms.

“You're an animal,” Gail smiled when Holly took a step back.

Holly grinned, “I've never played paintball before. It was fun.”

Gail kissed her and tossed the bag that was over Holly's shoulder into the back of her car. She kissed Holly again, effectively distracting her enough so that she could unbuckled the belt she was borrowing. Then with one swift yank the pants fell down around her ankles. Gail ran off cackling toward the driver's seat.

Holly called through the back of the car, “Seriously Gail? You're going to pants me?”

“I think I did pants you, Holly,” Gail answered, closing the car door.

Holly leaned on the back of the car and removed the soaking wet and muddy pants. She tossed them into the back of the car and then ran to the passenger's seat. When she got in, she was swept up into another kiss. “I can't believe I put up with you.”

Gail grinned, “I know,” she started the car, “You must be crazy.”

Holly looked at Gail's smile and took her hand as they started the drive home, “Yeah. I'm absolutely insane.”

 


End file.
